


Into the wild

by StrictlyNoFrills



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Canon, F/M, Female Bilbo Baggins, I have no idea what I'm doing with this thing but I'm doing it anyway, Mix of book and movie canon, Shifter AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:28:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21553999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrictlyNoFrills/pseuds/StrictlyNoFrills
Summary: The smallest of the free peoples are known for their ability to keep things hidden, but some things are even more important than guarding the secrets they have held for so long.
Relationships: Bilbo Baggins/Fíli, Fem!Bilbo/Fili, pre-Fem!Ori/Dwalin
Comments: 94
Kudos: 286





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by too many gifs on the Tumblr to count, all of them posted over a series of Fili Fridays. Thank you to those of you who encouraged this beast of what was supposed to be a tiny oneshot, and now might become a series.

Hands he had known from his first hours in this world cupped his face, and he stared down into blue eyes the exact same shade as his uncle’s, set in a much more feminine, yet still bold and handsome, face. It was still slightly disconcerting to realize that she was not, in fact, a giantess, as she had seemed throughout his childhood, so great was her presence. In truth, she was of middling height for a dwarrowdam, but her rich voice and the strength of her personality filled any room she entered.

“I am so, so proud of you, my little lion.” Her words then were soft, yet even so, he knew they must have carried to the ears of everyone gathered, so close as they all were to letting the shift overtake them, and he felt the tips of his own burn with embarrassed affection even as his heart constricted in his chest and warmth welled up within him. All his life, he had known that his mother loved him, but much like his uncle, she was sparing with her praise; it made the times when she gave it all the more precious, and leant them a ring of truth that might have been absent, had she praised him more frequently.

“Then we have your blessing?” He was of age now, and he did not need his mother’s approval for this or anything else, but still he wished to have it. He did not care to part with her for so long knowing that they were at odds.

She closed her eyes, for a moment appearing grieved, but the emotion was barely more than a flicker upon her face before it was gone. When her eyes were open once more, she smiled at him and assured him, “You do. I know you will keep you and your brother safe, and that you will bring honor to yourself and to our family.” The barest hint of mischief crinkled the corners of her eyes then. “And that you will keep your uncle from doing anything too ridiculous.”

He huffed and told her, “You ask much, amad.”

Giving him an arch look, she pulled him closer and reminded him, “I am giving into this foolishness with far more grace than might be expected. Never forget, son of mine: to whom much is given, much is expected.”

“I won’t. But keeping Thorin out of trouble - amad, that is what we have Dwalin for.”

“No, laddie,” Balin broke in merrily from not too far away. “That is what you have me for.”

“Aye, of course,” Fili agreed, pulling away from his mother and bowing slightly in Balin’s direction, though he kept his eyes firmly upon the elder dwarf’s face in deference to their current lack of apparel. “My mistake.”

Kili treaded over to join Fili and their mother, his eyes bright with anticipation. “We should be starting soon, shouldn’t we?”

“We should,” their mother agreed. “All we need now is for your uncle to grace us with his presence.”

Fili’s nostrils flared and he raised his head, turning slightly to peer over his mother’s shoulder. “Then I’d say we’ll be starting very shortly.”

She followed his gaze, twisting her neck around to catch sight of what Fili had seen only a moment before: Thorin had arrived and was in the process of removing his weapons, armor, and clothing. “What kept you, brother?”

“Some trouble with one of the mine shafts. They needed help shoring up an area where the supports had grown weak.”

“But all is well now?” she asked expectantly.

Thorin gave a single, firm nod. “Everything is as it aught to be, at least for the moment. That will have to be enough for the time that we are away.”

“Mahal willing, you all will make it out of this in one piece, and we will have no need of that mine shaft or any other in Ered Luin, come next spring.”

His uncle smiled, but Fili could see that his eyes were troubled. As set upon this course as Thorin had become in recent months, Fili knew that he still remembered well the many years following the battle of Azanulbizar in which he swore that to try and retake any of the lost dwarven holdings was madness, and that he wanted no part of it. They could well all die before next spring, which was the reason they were all gathered at the base of the Blue Mountains tonight, preparing for one last run all together before they must set out on their various tasks and then gather in the Shire to meet the mysterious fourteenth member of the Company the wandering wizard had promised to procure.

Even Gimli and Hamla, and Bombur’s young wife Merlas and their brood had joined them, which Fili had initially balked at. Gimli was a son of Durin and Hamla was of the line of Durin by marriage, but the inclusion of Bombur, his growing family, and his brother and cousin went against custom. Yet he could see the wisdom in it, as it was a good way for them to bond with everyone before they set off.

Thorin called for the attention of all the dwarves gathered and then looked to the sky, seeking the moon which had only recently made its appearance. “Friends and family, we gather here today for one last run before we must part ways, some to set out on the quest and some to remain in the settlement. It will be an honor to run tonight with those of you who share in the sacrifices that must be made for us to provide our people with a more promising future. It is our greatest hope that our time in exile will soon come to an end. May Mahal guide and protect us all.”

The dwarves gathered stomped and shouted their approval and looked on as Thorin’s form seemed to shudder, his piercing blue eyes rapidly growing surrounded by dark, thick fur. As their king’s shift progressed, the rest of them began to follow suit, Fili included. He allowed the energy that burned like the heat from his forge deep within him to work its way out and felt his bones elongate and realign as he crouched forward onto his hands, which swiftly became large, powerful paws. The scents of the other dwarves, already sharp in his nose, grew sharper still, and he could hear them panting and cracking bones as they stretched and some of them playfully snapped their jaws or swiped at the others.

A dark shape bounded into Fili’s side and he huffed, turning his head to bare his teeth at his little brother, who merely laughed at him, his tongue lolling out of his open mouth. Snapping out one of his front paws, Fili swiped at his brother even as Kili darted safely out of the way. Crouching down, he pounced upon his brother and then scooped him up by the scruff of his neck, giving him a bit of a shake. It was far too gratifying, being so much larger than his brother in this form, now that Kili was taller on two legs, and had been for more than a decade. Kili was a decent enough size for an otter, but Fili’s lion form was massive, easily matching Dwalin’s formidable size as a grizzly bear.

Kili struggled half-heartedly to get away, but Fili ignored his meager efforts and stalked towards the wolverine who was making his way towards the head of the gathering. Another dark form padded at his side, and he glanced at his mother out of the corner of his eye. She favored him with a droll look, which was every bit as eloquent in her wolf form as it was when she was a dam.

Thorin turned to look over everyone behind him, especially careful to check on the pebbles, who were all gathered around Bombur and Merlas in their honey bear forms, and then he gave three short barks and shot forward. Fili dropped his brother and gave his flank a nudge, and then they were off, the night air filling with the sounds of paws striking the hard earth and great panting breaths.

His longer, more powerful legs overtook his uncle’s long before he intended, and so he butted his head up against his uncle’s affectionately and then veered off, circling around to check on the others.

Gimli barked at him happily, the run leaving him in high spirits, and Fili bared his teeth in a grin. Ask his young cousin to run on two legs, and the whining was unbearable. Set him loose in his great hunting dog form and he could go for hours.

A brilliant red fox was harrying a silver badger, and Fili snorted at the sight. Nori never could leave well enough alone. Ori ambled along behind them, her head low to the ground, and Fili moved in closer, tugging on one of her ears playfully, careful to keep from holding it too tightly between his wickedly sharp teeth. She swiped at him with her ruddy brown paw and shook him off, sending him a pleading look with her large brown eyes. He grumbled lowly but resolved to let it go for now. He would speak to her tomorrow morning, before he and Kili left to escort their last caravan from Ered Luin before they would make their way towards the Shire. For the moment, he settled for throwing his head back and issuing a loud roar, which the others responded to with growls and howls and roars and barks of their own.

They ran for almost an hour, and then Thorin turned and began to lead them back towards the base of the mountains. When at last they reached the area where they had left their belongings, Fili’s muscles were pleasantly sore, and his spirits were high. He padded over to his brother and leaned down to touch his muzzle against Kili’s and then withdrew, looking over toward his uncle. As soon as he began to shiver from his wolverine form and into his dwarf form, Fili closed his eyes and allowed his own body to melt into his usual, much smaller form. He set about pulling on his smallclothes, his ears, which were still sharper than normal as a remnant of the shift, picking up the rustling and clanking of the others gathering and pulling on their own raiment.

A few feet away, Kili shrugged irritably, and Fili winced in sympathy. Clothes always felt slightly foreign after being in their other forms, but they were a necessary evil. If they did not accustom themselves to wearing clothes in their daily lives, their discomfort would be obvious around the other races, and that would cause questions it would be far better to avoid.

Fili had often wondered why none of the other races had been gifted with a second form. It seemed so strange to think of forever being trapped in one form. Of never feeling the raw power of the form that reflected his soul and having to walk the world without hope of ever finding his One. It was true that not every dwarf had a One, but Mahal’s blessing afforded his children at least some assurance in love, and Fili found that he rather pitied the other races for never having such guidance. He took a moment to wonder once again about their fourteenth member, and to wish that there had been even one more dwarf among those within the settlement willing and able to join them on this quest. For how were they to spend day after day with this halfling, to place their very lives in his hands, and to have him place his own life in their hands, if they could not truly be themselves? Already, he had raised the question to Thorin, Balin, and Dwalin of how they would manage their need to shift with a hobbit in their midst, and none of the answers they had given him had brought any comfort.

An arm dropped across his shoulders not long after he finished getting dressed and replacing his vambraces and all of his knives, and he felt his body collide against a slender form. “If your thoughts were any heavier, you would turn into our uncle here and now, brother. How can you be so solemn after such a run?”

He turned his head and caught his little brother’s eyes, seeing the same fears kept well hidden by his usual indefatigable love of life. It never ceased to amaze him how resilient and full of hope Kili could be, but he knew that it was not always without effort. Seeing the suffering and privation of their people could not fail to touch even Kili’s light heart, which was why Fili had even agreed to join their uncle in this insane venture, regardless of his misgivings on the matter. Kili truly believed that they could succeed, and that they owed it to their people to try, and there was nothing in the whole of Middle Earth that could keep Fili apart from his little brother while he risked his life. It was why they always escorted caravans together, though Thorin’s advisors had initially grumbled about both of his heirs being gone from Ered Luin at the same time. He smiled grimly at the memory of their shock when Fili, always the cool, level-headed of Dis’s sons, had shifted in the middle of a council meeting and pinned one of the loudest objectors to the floor. Oh, how quickly they had caved after that! It was difficult, after all, to argue when trapped beneath such a large predator. The scolding he had received after the meeting was over for losing control had been worth it, especially as it would have been much worse if his mother and uncle had known that Fili had not lost control at all.

Kili squeezed and jostled him, gaining his attention once more. “Hello?” he laughed uneasily. “Where are you tonight, Fee?”

Shaking his head, Fili resolved to let go of his abstractions until he reached the privacy of his room. “Nowhere you need to worry about, Kee.”

“Truly?”

He scoffed lightly. “Have I ever lied to you?”

“Well,” Kili said lowly, staring down at the dirt beneath their feet, “if you have, I doubt even I would be able to tell.”

“Kili,” he breathed, somewhat alarmed. “What’s this about?”

His little brother shook his head and forced out a laugh. “Nothing! Ignore me. You know I’m always a little odd after shifting back.”

“Kili.”

When Kili finally raised his eyes, he looked slightly sick. “I know you and amad had a fight about the quest.”

Fili sighed. They had done their best to keep their fighting away from Kili, but Fili could see that they might have miscalculated. Kili, for all of his stubborn optimism, was not stupid, and they should have known he would pick up on the tension between them, which had only been resolved earlier, when they spoke before the run. “Yes, we did, but it’s nothing to worry about. That’s all over with now.”

Looking frustrated, Kili asked, “Why did you not tell me, Fee? I could have helped. You always take on too much. Don’t you think it’s time you started trusting me to do my part?”

“I do trust you, Kili! More than anyone. Surely you must know that.”

“Must I?”

For the first time in a long time when it came to his little brother, Fili was at a loss. How could things have deteriorated between them so far without him noticing? And right before the most dangerous task of their lives, in which there was no room for discord or doubt. “Listen to me: you are the most important person in the world to me, and I have every faith in you. There is no one I would rather have by my side.”

Kili eyed him uncertainly. “Even if you find your One?”

His eyebrows shot up. “Is that what this is really about?”

Shrugging slightly, Kili looked somewhat sheepish. “We’ve never been so far from home before. She could be anywhere, or anyone.”

He shook his head slowly, his lips curving up ever-so-slightly at the corners. “So could yours. Did you think of that? And even if it happens, nothing could ever change the way that I feel about you. You’re my little brother. You think some dam could ever come between us?”

“Not just any dam,” Kili said. “Your dam. Or mine,” he acknowledged when Fili gave him a pointed look.

“Even so. There’s no guarantee that we’ll even have to worry about any of this, and if we do, I stand by what I said before: no dam will ever come between us.”

* * *

After checking over his pack and all his blades the next morning, Fili begged some mulled cider off of his mother and went in search of his only dam friend. His efforts were brief, as he found her exactly where he expected he would, curled over a worn leather tome in the settlement’s small but slowly expanding library.

He strolled up behind Ori and placed the mulled cider in front of her. She continued to read for a few moments and then set the tome aside with care. Wrapping her mittened hands about the hot mug full of her favorite drink, she lifted it to her nose and took a long, appreciative sniff. Then she peered up at him as he came around to sit opposite her at the small scrivener’s table and asked with a dryness she only ever used around Fili and Kili, “Bribery, Fili? I thought crown princes were supposed to be above such things.”

Fili leaned back in his seat, ignoring the barely banked alarm in Ori’s doe eyes when he lifted the front legs off of the floor that said plainly, _That chair is older than you are_. “You and I both know that at the moment, I am crown prince of nothing.”

With a wry little grin, Ori asked, “So until we take back the mountain, corruption is permissible?”

“Something like that,” Fili allowed casually. He straightened then, bringing the front legs of the chair back to the floor, much to his anxious friend’s relief, and then crossed his forearms before him on the table. “But I’m not here to talk about ethics, Ori.”

She averted her gaze, taking a generous sip of her cider, though Fili was unsure whether it was to fortify herself or purely for the sake of avoidance. “What would you like to talk about, then?”

“Don’t play the fool, Ori. Of all the people I know, it suits you and your mentor the least.” Giving her a pointed look, he said, “And since the matter of your mentor has arisen-“

“Only because you raised it,“ she injected, sounding as peevish as his sweet friend ever managed.

“Don’t interrupt. I was getting somewhere.” He tried to look severe, but it was difficult for anyone to ever be severe around Ori, save for her eldest brother, and Fili was too amused by his friend’s apparently contrary mood to do the job credibly. He cleared his throat, being as obnoxious about it is possible. _“Since the matter of your mentor has arisen_ , when are you going to address this thing between you and his brother?”

Her mouth folded in on itself unhappily, and she took another sip of her cider before deigning to respond. “First of all, that is a terrible segue, and _my mentor_ , your tutor, would be appalled. And second, I do not see how my issues with Dwalin are any of your concern.”

Fili sighed expansively. “This is making you miserable, Ori. Isn’t it time you either spoke with him about it or moved on? There are bound to be other dwarves who are grizzly bears. It doesn’t have to mean anything that you share the same form.”

She studied the contents of her mug sadly and then looked up at him. “But it does mean something. He _is_ my One, Fili. I know it. He knows it. He simply refuses to acknowledge it.”

“Well, then he’s a terrible One, and you deserve better.”

Ori gave a faint laugh, glancing around with a nervously amused air. “Bite your tongue, son of Vili! The last thing we need before this quest is blasphemy from our heir apparent.” She sobered and then said, “And anyway, Dwalin probably has the right idea about all of this. Another thing we don’t need is for some of us to be distracted by our hearts while we are trying to reclaim the mountain. And even after we reach the mountain, I am sure we shall both be far too busy for many years to come, setting things to rights. There are many other things aside from my One to be thinking about.”

“Now who’s being blasphemous? And I’ll thank you to never again let your brother’s nonsense come out of your mouth. You deserve to be _happy_ , Ori.”

“Fili!” she cried softly, trying not to smile, because she knew how ridiculous Dori was, but she would never actually admit it out loud. “When are you finally going to give my brother a chance and try to start getting along?”

“That depends. When is he going to start treating you like an adult?”

Ori wisely settled for taking another sip of her cider.

“Exactly. Ask me again in about seventy years.”

Her nose wrinkled, but all she did was shake her head in fond exasperation. “I’m going to miss you while you are away, although I’m sure I don’t know why.”

“Don’t worry. After we meet up in the Shire, we’ll see each other so much that we’ll be heartily sick of each other by the end of it.”

She gifted him with one of her shy little smiles that always felt like a reward. “Oh, what a horror that will be.”

* * *

As they strode further into the lands of the Shire, Fili’s nostrils flared, and he glanced about at the strange little homes with wary eyes. He was exhausted from the swift pace of their stint as guards for the caravan and the even swifter turn around towards this gentle land, but weariness had never played havoc with his senses before.

Kili caught the small stone their mother had given him before they left Ered Luin in one hand, and dug his elbow into Fili’s side, hissing, “What is the matter with you? You never have trouble controlling your shift.”

Fili glanced at his brother for an explanation. “Your eyes are golden. They’ve been shifting back and forth from blue to gold for the last few minutes. You need to do something about that because otherwise some of these hobbits are going to notice.”

His eyebrows rising all the way into his hairline, Fili paused and tried to take stock of himself. He could sense the shift hovering right at the surface of his skin, and he took a deep breath, closing his eyes and trying to center himself. That made it worse. He could feel his nails lengthening and sharpening into claws, and he breathed out through his nose in a frustrated huff. “It’s this place. There’s something not right about it. Can you not smell it?”

Kili gave him a curious look but then shrugged his shoulders and obliged him, also closing his eyes and taking a deep whiff of the Shire air. When he opened his eyes again, he tilted his head in thought and admitted, “There is something strange about it, but it isn’t bothering me. Whatever it is, we’ll keep an eye out.” Patting Fili lightly on the chest with the back of his hand, Kili urged him, “Now, come on. Gandalf said there would be plenty of food, and I am sick of cram and so hungry I could eat a whole deer by myself.”

Glancing around themselves one more time, Fili sighed and nodded when he could not spot anything that was obviously amiss. “Alright,” he agreed decisively. “Let’s feed you before you resort to decimating the local game population.”

“Thank you!” Kili beamed, before stuffing his stone into one of his coat pockets and bounding off.

“Kili!” he called, trying not to laugh. “You’re going the wrong way.” Thoroughly diverted from whatever had arrested him so earlier, Fili took off after his wayward brother, whose navigational skills were only slightly less terrible than their uncle’s.

He caught up to his little brother and redirected him, and not an hour later, they arrived at the vivid green door with the mark Gandalf had promised would be upon it thrown in sharp relief by the lamps someone had been so helpful to light on either side. Kili gave an irrepressibly enthusiastic knock upon the oddly appealing little door and they waited for a few moments before a low muttering made its way to their ears and then grew louder as someone approached from inside the dwelling.

The door jerked open and a comely but worn lass stared up at them with big blue eyes from beneath a thick, curly head full of dark hair before beginning to shut the door in their faces. “Please don’t take this personally. I do apologize, but you’ve come to the wrong place!” Fili stared at her thin arm and bony fingers as she tried to bar their entry and attempted to reconcile the difference between her and the round, hale little folk they had passed along the way.

Kili put out an arm and stopped the little lass’s progress. “It can’t be the wrong place! There’s Gandalf’s mark, right on the door, Miss Boggins. See?”

“Mark? What mark?” She jerked the door open once more and stared down at the etchings upon her front door with rapidly building indignation. “Bebother and confusticate that wizard! I just had this door painted.”

Fili sucked in a breath to offer some sort of pithy remark, but then he froze and took another look at the fuming lass, for there before him was the source of that distinct _wrongness_ which had so plagued him before. She looked healthy enough, and he could tell she was a kind soul, her present frustration not withstanding. The laugh lines at the corners of her red lips and bright eyes were evidence enough of her good nature. He could not account for whatever it was about her that might explain why she tugged at his senses. It was almost as if… but no. That was impossible. He shoved the bizarre notion away and stepped past her, beginning to pass her his weapons more in a bid to distract her from her outrage than anything. “Careful,” he cautioned with a grin playing at the edges of his lips. “I just had them sharpened.”

The expression she shot him was so bewildered and offended that it was a struggle to hold in a laugh. Oh, he was going to have fun with this. He caught Kili, who had joined him inside the entryway, lifting his foot to scrape off the multitude of mud which had made its way onto his boots over the course of their duties, and he kicked out at him lightly, causing his little brother to put his foot down. When Kili shot him a wounded look, Fili shook his head. He was going to have fun, but not too much fun. The poor thing looked frazzled enough already. There was no need to muss up any of her other belongings without her leave, as the wizard had evidently done.

Which was why he was careful later, when he rolled and tossed her dishes about, to ensure that not a single one received so much as a chip or a crack. By the time everything was spotless and in some semblance of order, Miss Baggins had moved past righteous indignation and onto to resigned amusement, and Fili felt that he could count the entire affair as a job well done, save for that brief moment where he had received a nose full of her scent and nearly begun to shift.

His work all fell apart rather quickly once Thorin arrived, and Fili suppressed a sigh. He would follow his uncle and defend him until his last breath, but did he always have to be so contentious? Mahal certainly knew what he was doing when he gave his uncle his form. He loomed over her and demanded curtly, “Tell me, Miss Hobbit. Have you ever done any fighting?”

Miss Baggins’s nostrils flared and she straightened to her full, thought still negligible, height and glared up at Thorin, unexpectedly fierce. “Though I see little enough what business it is of yours, I do well enough when the times call for it. Now, it has been a long day, so please do believe me when I say come any closer, Master Oakenshield and I shall gladly rip your throat out. With my teeth.”

Though he could not see his uncle’s expression from where he looked on down the hallway, Fili could tell that her rather vicious rejoinder had eased some of his misgivings. Small and frail though she might appear, there was some steel in her slender spine, and she would need it for the task ahead.

Not too much later, the matter of the dragon was brought to her attention, and Fili and Thorin had cause to reassess Mistress Baggins as she gasped for air and tried to get her bearings. While she braced her hands on her knees and tried to breathe evenly, Fili turned and snapped his jaw in Bofur’s direction, feeling his teeth elongate and his nose flatten briefly before he was able to reign his shift in again. This caused most of the older set to turn their shocked and disapproving focus upon Fili, rather than Miss Baggins, and Fili shook his head and held up is hands in wordless denial. He had no idea what was wrong with him today, and their silent recriminations would do nothing to resolve the issue.

Nor did their inattention give Miss Baggins any sort of reprieve, as Bofur continued to expound on the frightful nature of Smaug with his usual merry irreverence. When at last the poor, overwrought lass had enough, Fili acted without thinking, catching her as her eyes rolled up into her head. He bestowed a reproving glance of his own upon the abruptly contrite jackal and carried her away into a separate room, depositing her upon a rather roomy armchair and waiting until she came around.

* * *

When her bleary blue eyes opened and landed on him with muzzy incomprehension, Fili told her softly, “You’re alright, Miss. You’ve just had a bit of a shock, that’s all. Bofur means well. He just has a poor habit of not thinking before he opens his mouth.” He grimaced guiltily. “As does my uncle, on occasion.” So far, he had not lived up to his mother’s task to prevent Thorin from getting himself into trouble, and this was only the night before their journey started.

Her eyes beginning to clear, Miss Baggins sat upon a little straighter in her chair and replied, “I won’t hold Mister Bofur’s and Master Oakenshield’s actions against your party if you all will be kind enough to not hold my behavior this evening against me.” A look of shock crossed her face and she closed her eyes, appearing abashed. “Did I really threaten to rip his throat out?”

Fili smiled at her kindly when she opened her eyes and he gave her a short nod. “With your teeth.”

She pressed a delicate hand to her forehead. “Goodness me, I am not myself at all today.”

He considered her for moment, her words feeling more significant than they likely ought. “Don’t let it trouble you, Miss Baggins. We are none of us at our best today, apparently.”

Gifting him with a small smile, she reached out and patted one of the hands he had rested upon the arms of the chair. “Thank you, Mister Fili. Would you mind very much fetching Gandalf for me? I would have a few words with that wizard.”

Fili rose to his feet smoothly and gave her a bow. “At your service,” he offered before quitting the room and seeking out Tharkun. He found him nursing a cup of wine and speaking with Thorin. Waiting until his uncle had finished speaking, Fili cleared his throat and said, “The lady would like to speak with you, Gandalf.”

“Ah,” the wizened Man said, rising from his chair with an accomplished air. “Excellent. I thought it would not take her long to come around. Hobbits are far heartier than this evening might have led your party to believe.” He directed this last part toward Thorin, who met Tharkun’s gaze with an even look of his own. “If you’ll excuse me, I do believe Bilbo has the right of it. She and I would benefit from a chance to catch up.”

When the wizard was gone, Fili asked his uncle, “How well does he know Miss Baggins?”

Thorin shook his head, looking frustrated. “You know as much about the hobbit as I do. I cannot imagine what Tharkun was thinking when he chose her for this Company, but he will not be swayed. He claims that the great heroes – I can only imagine that he is speaking of the elves,” Thorin added with a great deal of asperity, “are all off on quests of their own, though I have heard nothing of what might be going on with the other free peoples of the world.”

“I’d imagine it has something to do with the increasing boldness of the orcs,” Fili noted tiredly. “We had to dispatch two raiding parties while we escorted the caravan.”

Thorin’s gaze sharpened. “That route was supposed to be safe. It is why your mother and I did not send you with more dwarves. What has caused this darkness to stir within our lands?” He did not wait for an answer, which was fortunate, as Fili had none to offer. “You killed all of them?”

Fili nodded. “We had to shift, along with our charges, but none of the orcs escaped. If they had, we would have hunted them down and caught up with the rest of the Company later.”

With an approving look, Thorin told him, “I know. You did well, sister son.” As Fili ducked his head, his cheeks warming, Thorin added, “I am sorry that you were in danger, but I am proud of the work you have done.”

“Thank you, uncle.”

Thorin clapped him on the shoulder and squeezed gently. “Come, Fili. Let us join the others.”

They strode out into the sitting room, and visited with each other for a while before Thorin, gazing into the fire, began to hum the opening bars to a tune most of them had grown up with, and the others had aided in the writing. The yearning of it pulled at Fili’s soul, as it ever had, and he saw the same feeling reflected in Kili and Ori’s eyes. They may never have been to Erebor, but they each experienced the longing which had hung over all of their people in the long years since their true home had been stolen from them.

A set of wide eyes in a small face peeked out at them from down the hall, and Kili murmured beside him, “Do you think she will come?”

Almost as though she had heard him, Miss Baggins turned her head slightly to look at Fili and his brother, and Fili knew with a certainty that surprised him. “She’ll come.”

* * *

The next morning, which dawned clear and bright, Fili held onto his inexplicable conviction, even as the others grumbled amongst themselves about the lateness and defenselessness of their proposed burglar. They helped themselves once again to her larder, and then they set out for the local inn to commission ponies and any additional supplies they did not already have for the first leg of their journey.

Finally, at exactly 11:00, Miss Baggins came racing down the way, waving the contract above her head. She came to a stop before Balin, who stood waiting for her, and pressed the scroll into his chest while she braced herself and tried to regain her breath.

Thorin cast a look teaming with contempt towards the puffing figure and turned away. “Help Miss Baggins with her pony so that we may be on our way.”

“Pony?” she gasped, glancing up in dismay.

Balin, who had finished reviewing her signature, rolled up the scroll and guided her over to her pony and helped her to mount it with an unflappable, “Aye, lassie. Up you get. You didn’t think we would be walking all the way to the mountain, did you?” The pony stamped and tried to shy away from its burden, and Fili narrowed his gaze. The other ponies had behaved much the same when the rest of their Company had mounted earlier, though the hobbits they purchased them from had assured them that these ponies were both sure of foot and even tempered.

As Miss Baggins clung to her erratic mount and opened her mouth to reply, she had to stop, her body shuddering, and when she tried again, rather than words, she let out an almighty sneeze. “Botheration,” she huffed through her stuffy nose. “I don’t even have a handkerchief.”

Bofur was only too happy to accommodate the lass, and Fili suppressed the spark of irritation he felt as she accepted what had once been part of the miner’s clothing with a cringe. Mahal above, what was wrong with him?

Before he could give it much more thought, Thorin directed his pony to begin moving, and they were off, poor Miss Baggins clinging miserably to her pony and burying the occasional sneeze into her makeshift handkerchief.

* * *

The rains came, and everyone eyed their little burglar with varying degrees of scorn, pity, concern, and affection as she shivered miserably and clutched her velvet coat, which was not at all suited to travel, tighter about her reedy frame. The rest of them were harried by the damp and cold, but not nearly to the same degree, and they had come prepared with cloaks treated to ward of the unforgiving weather.

Finally, Dwalin rolled his eyes and pulled up beside Miss Baggins, pulling his spare cloak out and draping it across her shoulders. He tugged the hood down over her nose and ears, which had gone red from the cold, and then he nodded, moving away as swiftly had he had come.

Fili stared at the sight of the large, dark green coat swamping their burglar and had to fight down a growl which had begun to build within his chest. To distract himself, he jerked his gaze away, and his eyes landed on the stricken look in a very familiar pair of doe eyes. The growl grew even more insistent, and he flexed his fingers, feeling his nails fight to escape his tight control and shift into claws. That settled it. Fili did not care how much Thorin cared about his best friend. Fili was going to murder Dwalin the moment he could get the older dwarf alone and make it look like an accident.

His friend must have seen something in Fili’s face, as she shook her head with a beseeching look. “Leave it,” she mouthed.

Fili gritted his teeth and forced himself to focus on something else.

* * *

Admittedly, sending Miss Baggins off after the ponies had not been his finest moment, but he had certainly not anticipated that it would result in this. As he stared up at the tiny woman where she was held splayed in the air by the two trolls, he glanced at his uncle, whose grip upon his sword was so tight that Fili could see the whiteness of his knuckles even in the low light cast by the fire.

Thorin clenched his jaw and cast down his sword, but then he glanced at the rest of the Company ranged around him and gave a single, sharp nod. Together, they followed suit, but as one of the trolls trussed up Miss Baggins, and the other two began to advance on the dwarves, first Thorin and the Dwalin, followed by Balin and Fili and Kili and all of the rest, began to shift.

The raw power that surged through him as his limbs elongated and his bones realigned was a relief after several weeks of having to keep his lion contained. He had jumped before shifting, and he came down in a crouch behind one of the trolls and swiped at its calves and tore a chunk out of one of its thighs. The troll fell to its knees with a bellow, and Fili slammed into its back, driving its face into the dirt. The troll fought to roll over, its head turned back towards him, exposing its neck, and Fili bared his teeth and sank them into the bared flesh, ripping out the troll’s jugular.

With a snarl, he turned toward where the rest of the Company had engaged the other two trolls, and saw that Ori, who must have headed straight for her as soon as she began to shift, was crouched over Bilbo protectively while the others fought to take down their quarry. Dwalin, Balin, Thorin, and Dori had one troll trapped between them, and the rest were fighting the last troll. Bombur was handling himself surprisingly well, for being such a peaceful soul, and Bofur was, as usual, an absolute menace, with Bifur right alongside him. As he looked on, Gloin went in for the killing blow, slicing through the troll’s neck with his long, wicked claws, and Dwalin took the other troll’s head in his two front paws and twisted, sending a sharp crack through the clearing.

As the trolls laid dead and silence reigned, the Company began to flow back into their two-legged forms, and Fili, mid-shift, turned towards where Ori was beginning to shrink down to her usual size. As he stalked towards the hobbit and dam, he growled, still riding the adrenaline rush from seeing Bilbo nearly ripped in two and from the fight. “Shift!” he ordered, staring down at Bilbo as Ori helped to free her from her sack and bonds.

Bilbo’s eyes were blown wide, and for a moment, he could see them flicker from vivid blue to gold, but she shook her head and the change was gone almost too swiftly for his eyes to see. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really, Fili-“

He glanced at Ori and shook his head. “I know what I smelled. What I can still smell,” because the sharpness of his senses from his other form lingered still, and because he finally knew for sure what he had suspected all along. He looked back at Bilbo, who began to rise onto slightly shaky limbs, and said again, “Shift. Now.”

“Fili, please, you’re ah, you’re scaring me. All of you, really. I mean, you – you just changed into animals and took down three trolls. Who does that? How did you do that?”

With a roar, Fili shifted again, making sure to save his hands for last, so that he could keep Bilbo’s head from hitting the ground as he bore her down and bared his teeth in her face. As the rest of the Company let out shouts of alarm and confusion and anger, the tiny body beneath his began to shiver and shake, and in the blink of an eye, a lioness was glaring up at him in fury. She reached up to rake her claws down his face, roaring back and twisting to get out from underneath him.

As she took off, Fili gave chase, following close behind as her powerful tawny paws ate up the earth and carried her farther and farther from the rest of the Company. They ran and ran until the sun was fully up, and Bilbo skidded to a stop, staring down into the dirt.

Fili allowed himself to change back and laid a hand between her shoulder blades. “Why?” asked softly, all of his earlier anger gone. “Why would you suppress your shift for –“ He had no idea how long it would take for the vitality Mahal’s gift afforded his children to wither away and leave someone as frail as Bilbo had been. Fur disappeared beneath his fingers, replaced by dark curls, and he sank his hands in until the tips of his fingers reached her nape.

“Twenty-nine years,” she admitted. “I haven’t shifted since I was a young tween, in the Fell Winter.”

Almost thirty years? Mahal, she should be _dead_. No shifter could go for that long without taking on their animal form and survive to tell about it.

She turned and looked at him from over her shoulder, and Fili’s eyes widened. He had known that she would be different. He _had_. He simply hadn’t expected for the change to be so extreme. Her cheeks were full and rosy, and the lines were gone from around her eyes and mouth. Her skin, which had been drawn and pale, was full of healthy color. The years had fallen away from her face, and Fili felt as thought he was looking at an entirely different person.

“Why?” he asked again. Why would his One do such a dangerous thing? What possible reason could there be to not shift for so long?

Bilbo looked away, studying her hands, which looked in far less danger of crumbling if someone held them too tightly. “No one can know about the shift. We Tooks don’t know why anymore, if we ever did, but those of us who have the,” her face twisted bitterly, “ _gift_ , are raised knowing that we must protect the secret at all cost. Not all of the Tooks are born with it, but the ones who are find it difficult to stay in the Shire, especially if they shift too often. They grow _restless_ , and many of them take off on long adventures so that they may shift in peace. My uncle Hildifons found it so difficult that one day he simply decided to leave and never come back.” Her mouth tightened and she admitted, “A sickness came over most of the Shire during the Fell Winter. First it took my father. Then it took my mother. If my mother had not suppressed her shift so much, she would have survived. But after she was gone, I couldn’t bring myself to do it again. That was always something that she and I had done together, when my father went off to visit our Baggins relations. And anyway, who ever heard of a lioness in this part of the world? Even if I had wanted to do it, I couldn’t have. It would have been too dangerous.”

Fili shook his head. “There are plenty of rooms in Bag End with no windows. Maybe it wouldn’t have been ideal, but you could have at least ensured that you weren’t killing yourself.”

She flinched. “Dying was never my intention. You have to believe that.”

“No. No, I’m not sure that I do.” He sighed and rose to his feet, walking around to stand before her and offer his her hand.

She raised her head and eyed him warily, her cheeks coloring at the stark realization that they were miles away from the others, bare as the days they had both been born. After a few moments, she shrugged her shoulders and accepted his hand, allowing him to bring her up to stand. She turned and looked about them warily. “Maybe we should change back. I’m not sure how I feel about being so exposed when we’re so far away from the rest of the Company.”

“Ah, so now you want to shift,” Fili observed mildly.

“Well, the um, cat’s already out of the bag, so to speak,” she joked with a good bit of chagrin. “Might as well.”

Fili huffed. “That was terrible.”

“It was, wasn’t it?”

“Aye. You should be ashamed of yourself, Miss Baggins.”

With raised eyebrows, Bilbo ran her eyes over both of them and then went red all over again. “I think we’re, ah, past all of the formalities at this point, don’t you?”

“I see your point.”

“I thought you might.”

They walked on in silence for a time, and then Bilbo asked, “So, do all dwarves do what we can do? Or is it just certain families, like it is for hobbits?”

“Every dwarf is born with the ability. Regardless of how you might feel about it,” he added gently, “it _is_ a gift. A gift from Mahal, our creator.”

Bilbo bit her lip, mulling that over, and then she told him, “We’ve always joked that one of our Took ancestors must have married a fairy, and that’s where the ability came from. But maybe…”

“Maybe one of your ancestors was a dwarf,” Fili finished, nodding his head slowly. “It would make sense. And it would explain why your family places so much importance upon keeping the ability hidden. We dwarves are a secretive race, and we guard our maker’s gifts jealously.”

Taking a deep breath, Bilbo tilted her head up and looked in wonder at the clear blue expanse above them. “I can’t believe I waited for so long. Now that I’ve shifted… I don’t think I can ever go back. I feel… strong. And free.”

Fili had to admit he felt a good bit of relief at hearing that. He had suspected for a few weeks that she was a shifter, but he had never imagined that she might be his One as well. Certainly, he found her attractive before, and now that she appeared young and healthy again, he could honestly say that she was beautiful, but he had never entertained the thought that anything might come of the pull he felt towards her. She was a hobbit. He was a dwarven prince, charged with the protection of his people’s secrets. He could not have known that in generations past, a dwarf had already passed the ability on to one of her ancestors. Now that he knew, now that he truly understood, he could not imagine being parted from her at journey’s end.

Rather than saying any of this, he tugged on her hand and then let go, calling, “Race you back!” over his shoulder, leaning forward and leaping into his shift, catching sight of her doing the same out of the corner of his eye, though not before she let out a few colorful words he hadn’t even been aware she had in her vocabulary.

As they raced over the uneven earth back towards the rest of the Company, Fili felt a sense of rightness settle upon him. He had no idea how this quest would end, and he had more to lose now than he had ever had before, knowing that their burglar, the one hired to sneak into the mountain and steal from the dragon, was his One. Yet he had to believe that Mahal would not be so cruel to bring them together only for them to be torn apart. He had to believe that everything that had led them to this moment had happened for a reason.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy carp, this AU is _insane_! *glares at Word documents in extreme offense* This thing was only ever supposed to be about 2-3k words long, and now look where we are. And we're not even out of Unexpected Journey yet.

Howls carried upon the wind, and Fili felt his hackles raise. That sound had not come from any natural beast. He lifted his muzzle into the air and took in the scent, letting out a furious growl that Bilbo echoed at his side as she, too identified the source.

Wargs. And judging from the foul stench now clogging his nostrils, the twisted servants of the Enemy carried orcs upon their backs, at great speed, headed straight towards the clearing where Bilbo and Fili had left the rest of the Company.

They exchanged a glance and both put on a burst of speed, hoping to catch up to the raiding party and give the Company ample warning before their arrival.

At the halfway point, they passed a team of unusually large and swift rabbits pulling a strange Man in a brown cloak and hat in the same direction in which they were headed. Bilbo bumped up against him and sent him a puzzled look when he turned his head her way, but he was every bit as confused by the bizarre sight as she, and he shrugged his shoulders as best as he could while running full out, closing more and more of the distance between them and the rest of the dwarves by the moment.

Finally, they crested a small hill and caught sight of the wargs and their riders, and Fili sucked in a great lungful of air and issued a bone-shaking roar, causing the raiding party to stop, twist back around upon their mounts, and stare, aghast, at the large feline forms bearing rapidly down upon them. At his side, Bilbo too began to raise her voice, perhaps sharing Fili’s desire to let the Company know that danger was coming, or perhaps simply giving vent to her disgust for orcs, which Fili felt was completely valid, as far as reasons for roaring went.

The orcs remained stupefied for several moments, before finally one of them had the bright idea to turn back around and attempt to flee. By that point, however, it was futile. Fili could hear the pounding of paws upon the earth from father ahead, and the distance between Bilbo and the raiders was closing at a furious pace.

Just before Fili leapt up and came down hard upon the outermost orc with his left paw slicing down its face, he caught sight of Dwalin barreling towards the raiding party from the opposite direction, and he knew that the others could not be far behind.

With brutal celerity, Fili dispatched first the orc and then its warg, keeping half of his attention on Bilbo, who had just engaged the second nearest orc and its hideous beast. It was clear from the way that the lioness fought against the orc that she was unused to combat, but she was angry and afraid, and that made her lethal in a way that she normally wouldn’t have been. Still, he resolved to remedy her inexperience as soon as they were somewhere safe enough to spar, in both of her forms, and then he caught up to the next orc and pounced upon it, pushing it clear of its mount. The force with which he drove the orc’s head into the unforgiving earth killed it instantly, and he turned his attention towards the newly riderless warg, seeing in his peripheral vision as Thorin and Balin arrived.

A swath of fire sliced down his back as an opportunistic orc tried to pin him in between itself the warg he was fighting. He bellowed in pain and fury and made quick work of the warg before him and then turned to make the orc who had scored a lucky hit regret it fiercely, only to find that Bilbo had gotten there first. She shredded the orc’s face and dug her claws into its throat, causing black, viscous fluid to spurt all over her beautiful tawny fur, and then she drove its mount down into the dirt and tore out its jugular.

Raising her head, her muzzle and teeth dripping with gore, she eyed him expectantly, as if demanding to know why he had stopped in the midst of a battle.

It was a good question, but it was one that he had no intention of answering, because somehow he doubted she would appreciate hearing how gorgeous he found her whilst she slaughtered their enemies. So, he threw himself into a fight with yet another orc and focused upon keeping himself and all of their Company alive.

When the last warg finally fell, and all of the orc filth lay dead at their feet, Fili swept his gaze over the Company, ensuring that they had made it through the skirmish relatively unscathed. Many of them were moving somewhat gingerly, and still more of them were shooting Bilbo furtive glances, clearly unsure what to think of the revelation from late last night. Her strategy for their obvious curiosity was apparently blatant avoidance: she sprawled upon the earth and languidly licked one of her paws, which had a minimal amount of her own blood upon it. The bright red contrasted sharply with the black blood of the orcs that painted much of the rest of her hide. Her paw must have been sliced open at one point, but not too deeply, as she exhibited no signs of discomfort while she cleaned her fur.

Already, he could feel the itching which signified that the skin upon his back was slowly beginning to knit back together, as his face had done while he and Bilbo ran this morning, and he prowled over to his brother, who had a gash upon his tiny cheek, the blood running into his dark fur. He leaned down and sniffed the gash for any traces of poison, which would slow the healing process, and then proceeded to check over every other inch of his brother’s small form. Kili bore the examination with a resigned air, and refrained from pulling away, even when Fili nosed into the flesh under Kili’s foreleg, having found another wound in the sinew that connected the thin limb to Kili’s lithe body.

Finally satisfied that his little brother would not suffer any lingering effects from the fight, he licked Kili’s uninjured cheek and turned to seek out Bilbo, who sat on her haunches not too far away, observing the two of them. He knew the moment she realized he intended to look her over with the same sort of attention to detail as he had examined Kili, because she sent him a look of pure exasperation and rose to her full height, abandoning her attempt to clean her fur and stalking away towards Ori so that the dam could do the honors in Fili’s stead, and Bilbo could return the favor.

Knowing that Ori would see to it that Bilbo was well tended, should the lass need it, Fili lowered himself to sit and wait for Gandalf and the strange Man in brown, who had finally caught up with them and was resting his inexplicably large rabbits, to finish speaking with each other. Kili took his own turn checking Fili over, lingering over the large slice along his back, but then, once he was sure Fili’s wounds were free of toxins, he curled up against Fili’s side. Together, they watched and listened to Gandalf and Radagast, as they learned the other Man was named, which would make him the wizard Gandalf had spoken of not too many days ago. The two wizards took on the grizzly task of moving the bodies of the wargs and orcs into a large pile and setting the pile alight, Dwalin and Dori shifting back to lend them a hand, as they were the strongest members of the company, and largely uninjured. As the two wizards worked, they spoke of a terrible power that was growing in the east. The brown wizard called the source of the darkness a necromancer, and Fili tried and failed to dispel the warning the word caused in his heart.

At last, the pile of dead wargs and orcs was fully ablaze, sending off the foul stench of burnt fur and flesh. It was a welcome development when the two wizards finished conferring, and Radagast the Brown took his rabbits and departed, leaving the Company in his wake, as it meant that they would soon be on their way as well.

Gandalf glanced over all of them and then gestured towards the direction from which they had come. “Well, come along, then. The ponies may be lost to us, but we may still recover our supplies and find each of you a new set of clothes.”

Fili caught Bilbo giving the grey wizard a long, considering look from where she rested with Ori. Cocking his head, he wondered where his One’s thoughts lay. He entertained the possibility of asking her about it later but discarded the idea as he and Kili rose from their spot upon the ground. He and his brother studied each other for a moment before Thorin gave a bark and took off in the direction of the slain trolls and their abandoned camp. Kili eventually rolled his eyes but nodded, allowing Fili to pick him up by the scruff of his neck in deference to his injury. Fili would set him back down again after enough time had passed for the accelerated healing the shift afforded their race to ensure that running would not aggravate Kili’s wound further, conveniently ignoring the giant wound across his own back.

Retracing their steps to their abandoned camp was a necessary delay, and they were forced to go slower than the Company would prefer, as several of their members had sustained injuries last night and this morning.

They passed a stream along the way and took a brief break to remove the remnants of their battles from their fur, Gandalf standing watch. By this point, the wound beneath Kili’s foreleg had healed enough that Fili left his little brother to his own devices, watching as the otter played happily in the water, in his element in a way that most of the rest of those shifted were not. Oin, Dwalin, and Ori could have splashed around in the water well enough if they so chose, but Oin was too old for such silliness, Dwalin too dour, and Ori too shy.

As soon as they were all reasonably clean, the Company resumed the trek, and by midday, they arrived back at their camp.

Slowly, they melted back into their two-legged forms, each headed to their packs for a new set of clothes. Dwarves did not live for long before learning the wisdom of packing at least one extra set of clothing and leather armor, so even though they had known this would be a long journey, and the spares would weigh them down and take up space in their packs, they had all come prepared. Even Bilbo had something, Fili noted as he pulled brown leather pants on over his smalls and began to tie the laces.

She must have been planning for the colder weather which was sure to come further down the road, as the fabric of the new chemise and dress were heavier and fell further down her legs. They were darker as well, a mix of greens and browns which would blend in far better with the wilderness than her bright yellow bodice, brown skirt, and deep red coat had.

He jerked his head away when she glanced over and caught him staring, turning his focus to his doublet, which would provide a soft layer between his skin and the leather of his jerkin, which was riddled with pockets and sheaths for his blades.

Before he could pull the undershirt on, Bilbo called over to Oin, “Excuse me! Master Oin, could you take a look at Fili’s back, please? I believe it needs bandaging.”

The others, most of whom had alternated between giving Bilbo hard, curious looks and pretending she did not exist, now turned to look at her fully, and then bestowed disapproving looks upon Fili. He pursed his lips at their scrutiny and would have liked to be irritated over Bilbo’s interference, would it not have been so hypocritical. Fili had been the one to force her to shift earlier, after all, and would have been the first one to throw her or Kili or Ori at Oin’s mercy, should any of them have had need of it. In fact – “When you’re done with me, would you have a look under Kili’s arm? It should be fine now, but I’d rather be certain.”

Kili sent Fili a deeply betrayed look but did not object.

“What have you lads done to yourselves now?” Oin grumbled. He finished dressing hastily and then bustled over with his pack, pulling out a foul-smelling concoction Fili had only been subjected to a few times over the years, when his wounds were too deep to be allowed to heal on their own. Grimacing as the slimy substance was slathered liberally along the line of fire down his back, he gritted his teeth and fought back a wince.

Once he was properly bandaged and scolded, and Oin had moved onto his little brother, Fili finished redressing and put the few things that had been removed last night before he and Kili had been sent to keep an eye on the ponies back into his pack. Then he went over to tap Kili, who had suffered under Oin’s ministrations and dressed haphazardly, as was his wont, and was now chatting idly with Bofur, on the shoulder. “Let’s go collect our weapons from the troll camp.”

Thorin must have heard him, as he called over from where he was pulling on a set of vambraces, “I’ll come with you.”

Nori volunteered as well, rubbing his hands together, which meant that Dwalin, who tended to avoid letting the thief out of his sight when he could help it, would also be coming along. “Someone should have a look at that troll horde, after all. We didn’t have time earlier, what with having to bury the trolls.”

Fili nodded. He should have thought of that, but he had been too caught up in everything that was going on with Bilbo to think of much else. That was sloppy, and his mother would box his ears if she ever found out about it. It was one of the rules every dwarf learned before going out into the world: never shift in the presence of outsiders unless you have to, and if you do, make sure none escape alive, and that you leave no evidence of the battle behind.

“I believe I shall accompany you as well,” Gandalf announced, and Fili fought against the urge to roll his eyes. At this rate, they might as well wait for the entire Company to finish dressing and come along.

Kili must have had the same thought, as he cast his eyes about the clearing and said, “Why don’t we just wait a little while? We’d have to pass through the troll camp later on anyway. Might as well not split up if we don’t have to.”

Thorin, who likely wished to take this time to have a more private word with Fili, looked as though he might object, and then he must have thought better of it. Fili imagined that his uncle had arrived at the opinion that there had been enough delays this day as it was. “Work quickly,” he ordered the Company at large, supporting this theory. “We have already lingered in this area too long as it is.”

He turned his gaze upon Bilbo, who had finished dressing and was in the process of packing away her bedroll. “Burglar, I would have a few words with you, once you are done.”

Bilbo closed her eyes, her fingers stilling for a moment, and then she looked at Thorin and nodded. “Just give me a moment.”

When she was as ready as she could be, Bilbo strode over to Thorin with a wary yet defiant look in her eyes.

He stared at her wordlessly for a few beats and then said, “Explain.”

Shrugging her shoulders, Bilbo looked down to study her large, hairy feet, and while they were admittedly, rather fascinating, Fili suspected it was more an attempt to avoid acknowledging the many curious ears perked towards the coming conversation, particularly as Bilbo was no doubt intimately familiar with her own feet, and could find nothing about them worthy of such scrutiny. “There’s not much to tell, really. I come from a rather unusual line of hobbits – the Took line, that is, on my mother’s side – who occasionally produce fauntlings with the ability to change into animals. Until last night, none of us had any idea where the ability might have come from. As I told Fili earlier, we always fancied that we must be descended from a fairy of some sort, but now knowing that this is a gift given to the dwarves, it seems far more likely that somewhere in the past, one of your people must have married one of mine.”

“And your refusal to shift? I can understand your need for secrecy, but never have I seen one so determined to deny Mahal’s gift. Nor am I fond of seeing my nephew attacked by one whom I should be able to trust.”

Bilbo’s eyes met Fili’s for a moment and then perused the path her claws had taken many hours ago. Judging from the way they felt, and Oin’s complete lack on interest in them whilst he addressed the wound on Fili’s back, they should be entirely closed over now, with only angry red lines to show for her display of ire. Her mouth worked unhappily at the sight, and she smoothed down the fabric of her dress uncomfortably. “Well, I had no idea it was a gift from your creator, did I?” she retorted, and then seemed to think better of it, elaborating, “I do apologize for the harm caused by my actions. That was a, hmm. The result of a personal matter. But I assure you, the matter has been resolved. It will not be an issue again.”

Clearly unappeased by the paucity of information, Thorin stared down at her for a moment and then shook his head. “See that it doesn’t. We cannot afford to have such a weak or volatile member in this Company.”

“And yet you were willing to take me on before you knew,” Bilbo pointed out.

“I was not willing,” Thorin replied swiftly. “The wizard insisted.”

“And now you might perhaps have a bit of an idea why,” Gandalf broke in from where he sat upon a log and puffed away at his pipe.

“Gandalf,” Bilbo said, clearly surprised. “You knew?”

“Of course, I did. Your grandfather is one of my dearest friends, Bilbo Baggins, as was your dear mother. And,” Tharkun added, “as is the case with hobbits, there is far more to the members of my order than meets the eye.”

Bilbo favored the wizard with a skeptical look, but declined to comment beyond a vague, “Hmm.”

“Alright,” Dwalin called. “Enough nattering. Is everyone ready?”

“I’m not,” Ori replied, and Dwalin turned to look at her briefly before averting his eyes. “Give me a few minutes more,” she added, her voice growing quieter at the sight of Dwalin turning away.

Frowning in sympathy, Bilbo moved away from Thorin and back towards the dam. “Let me help you, Ori. What more do you need to do?”

Ori sent her a grateful look, and together, the two of them finished getting her belongings together and packed away.

* * *

The walk to the troll camp was brief, once they finally began moving again. When they arrived, Fil saw that all of their weapons had been arranged in an organized fashion, and there was a pile of fabric and leather scraps laying not too far away. Scattered about the ground, there were unmarred outfits lying abandoned where those dwarves among them with smaller forms, such as Kili and Thorin, must have abandoned them a second time when they heard the approach of Fili, Bilbo, and the orc raiding party.

Dori and Ori began to put the scraps in their packs, and Bilbo moved to join them. Those scraps, Fili knew, would be used to make new clothing. The rest of the Company split in two: half set about finishing the massive troll grave, Fili and Kili included, and the remaining half went in search of the troll cave.

By the time the second party rejoined them in the camp, they were all equally sweaty and covered in dirt. “What have you been up to?” Kili called, swiping the arm on his uninjured side across his forehead.

“Burying the treasure from the troll horde,” Nori replied, appearing entirely too cheerful.

“And do you anticipate having cause to return for that treasure, Master Nori?” Bilbo asked, her eyebrows raised.

Nori gave her what he probably thought was an enigmatic smile, and which truly only made him appear even more of a scoundrel than normal. “One never knows, Miss Baggins.”

Privately, Fili felt that the gesture was rather futile. Should they succeed, the amount found within the troll horde would hardly compare to the fourteenth of the treasure in Erebor to which each member of the Company would be entitled, and should they fail, it was unlikely that any of them would be in any shape to recover the hidden items. The best they could hope for was to keep it out of the hands of the Enemy, which was galling, as it would probably provide quite a bit of comfort for those left back in Ered Luin. If only they could find some way to alert his mother to its location, then perhaps it might provide some small comfort to their people, in the event that the Company did not survive the quest.

“Burglar,” Thorin said, interrupting Fili’s dark musings. He waited for Bilbo to look up from where she had been talking quietly with Ori. “Take this.” He tossed small scabbard which housed a blade that was little more than a letter opener towards the hobbit lass, and she caught it with a surprising amount of dexterity, looking perplexed.

“Thank you, I suppose,” she muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear. She belted the scabbard about her waist with her eyebrows knitted together, whether in concentration or consternation, Fili could not tell. It was probably a mixture of both. “Just what I always wanted. How ever did you know?”

“And well you should,” Gandalf said in Thorin’s stead, sounding far more pleased about the arrangement than Thorin had, which likely meant that this had been the wizard’s idea. “That blade, Bilbo my dear, is of elvish make, and it will glow blue when goblins draw near.”

She regarded her tiny sword with a great deal more respect at this pronouncement. “Well, now. That’s a bit different, isn’t it? Thank you, Master Thorin.”

Thorin nodded shortly and said no more about the matter, and not long after that, the Company was finally ready to continue on its way, opting to eat something as they went. The cram and dried meat left much to be desired, but at least they were able to recover some of the energy expended from shifting so much in such a short period, with little or no rest in between.

They tromped along for several hours in a mostly silent formation, wary after encountering both trolls and orcs, and after the tidings brought by Radagst the Brown. Then Bilbo lifted her head up, her ears visibly twitching, and she allowed her nose to shift ever so slightly.

“What is it, Miss Boggins?” Kili asked.

Her lips quirked at the butchering of her name, but she said only, “I hear something. A lot of somethings, really. And I can smell the scent of horses on the wind.” She glanced down at her new blade and loosed it carefully from its sheath. The blade was beautiful, with intricate detailing inlaid, but it cast off no blue light, and she resheathed it with a relieved sigh. “Either this sword has a short range, or it isn’t another orc band, which is fine by me. One in a day is already far too many for my taste.”

Dwalin sent her a deadpan look, but then he, too, lifted his head, allowing his ears and nose to darken and grow fur for a moment before reversing the shift and spitting, “Tree-shaggers.”

At this, Thorin glared at the wizard among them. “Where are you leading us?” he demanded, though he sounded as though he already knew.

“To someone who will be able to read that map for you,” Gandalf declared, entirely unaffected by Thorin’s obvious displeasure.

“What treachery is this? You knew I did not wish to meet with the elves, and yet you would take us straight to them?”

“There is no treachery at work, Thorin Oakenshield. Only a desire to help you, even when you will not help yourself.”

Kili looked far too impressed by the string of Khudzul invectives their uncle released then, and Dori reached up to cover Ori’s ears. She bore the treatment with a longsuffering air, and Fili snorted. One day, she was going to show her oldest brother exactly why her form was a grizzly bear, and Fili hoped that he was there to witness it, as it was bound to be an event of great historic significance.

Then the sound of hoofbeats struck his ears, and he strained to catch sight of the approaching horses and their riders. Several long moments later, the elves and their mounts appeared on the horizon, and a short time after that, they drew near enough for Fili to make out the bows across their backs and the pointed tips of their ears.

The small contingent circled about the dwarves, forcing them to fall into a more compact formation, and Fili gazed up at the fair folk with blatant irritation. So far as he knew, they were not yet upon elven lands, and so there was no cause for them to approach the dwarves as though they were servants of the Enemy.

What followed was far more posturing than Fili would have expected from Lord Elrond, who revealed that he and his men had been tracking the very orc pack the Company had dispatched earlier, and the exact amount of posturing he had always known to expect from his uncle, but in the end, the Company received an invitation for rest, food, and a hot bath, and so he held his tongue.

“Please, ride with us,” the elven lord entreated, and so the dwarves suffered the indignity of being hauled up behind the elves.

Bilbo, Fili noticed, was offered a ride with Lord Elrond, and she accepted with far more grace and genuine gratitude than the rest of their number, save Gandalf who was indecently delighted by this turn of events. He heard Bilbo conversing with their host in Sindarin, and itched to teach her Khudzul as well, so that she would not only know the language spoken by the elves. If what they suspected was true, then she was part dwarf, if only a small part, and to know the language of his people was her birthright.

Thoughts of whether or not Thorin would agree filled his head the rest of the way to Rivendell, and then those thoughts were put aside as one elf led Gandalf and the dwarves to a bathhouse, and an elleth led Ori and Bilbo to another.

He may have no love for the elves, but Fili soon found that he loved their bathing pool. The sensation of the hot water was a welcome relief to his still-healing skin, which itched something fierce. He could see that Kili was equally appreciative of the bath and could see also the desire to swim about in it in his otter form, though they dared not take the risk within these elven halls.

“So,” Thorin’s voice sounded near to his ear, causing Fili to start and execute a swift about-face in the water. The displaced liquid sloshed up and then down their torsos, and Thorin sent him a droll look. “So,” he said again, “I would imagine that certain recent revelations have led you to come to a conclusion about the hobbit lass. I would caution you against putting too much stock in that conclusion until we know more about her.” His gaze softened and he said gently, “I would not see you disappointed, sister son.”

“How could I be disappointed, uncle?” Fili wondered, shaking his head in disbelief. “Bilbo is… She is magnificent. You saw her, just as I did.”

“She is an _apostate,”_ Thorin growled. “To have denied a gift from Mahal for so long is unthinkable. No dam would ever do such a thing.”

“And Bilbo is no dam,” Fili retorted, putting aside his earlier thoughts of helping her to honor her dwarven heritage. Now was not the time to try and convince his uncle that she should be taught their secret language. Not if he was so thoroughly set against her as this. “Her family knows nothing of their origins, Thorin. What she did was not done out of a lack of reverence or out of malice. It was done out of ignorance and grief. Who among us do you know who has not made a mistake for such reasons?”

Thorin closed his eyes and sighed. “When did you grow so wise and independent? I look at you and I still see the little pebble who followed me about Ered Luin and peppered me with questions in the hopes that he would one day be just like me.” He did not wait for a response, choosing to open his eyes and pin Fili with a searching look instead. Fili did not know what his uncle found, but whatever it was, it prompted Thorin to say, “If she is indeed your One, then I am more sorry than I can say, Fili. We are leading her straight to what may very well be her death.”

Staring down into the water, Fili contemplated his earlier optimism as he and Bilbo had run back to rejoin the rest of the Company, and the fierceness she displayed in the battle, as well as her refusal to quail before Thorin’s obvious disapproval. He felt settled in a way that he never had before, even with what was to come, and he could see that same peace in her, though he suspected she did not yet know why. There was a strength and a sharpness within her that he was only now beginning to recognize, and it gave him hope that perhaps this fool’s errand was not quite so foolish after all. “Thank you, uncle, but your worry, while appreciated, is unnecessary. I found something today that I’d been missing, you see.”

“What did you find?”

Looking straight up into his uncle’s blue eyes, so much like his mother’s, Fili told him simply, “Faith.”

* * *

Dinner that evening was a quiet affair, the Company too exhausted by the day’s events to object overmuch to their elven hosts. Afterwards, Lord Elrond led them to the Hall of Flames, a place where the elves played music that was far too solemn and haunting for Fili’s taste. His people had their own songs of remembrance and sorrow, such as the lament of Erebor, but much of their music was joyful and full of praise for Mahal, and Fili’s fingers flexed against his thigh, yearning for his fiddle. Kili, too, appeared restless, and they exchanged more than a few impatient glances.

It was Bilbo who saved them, asking that she be allowed to introduce some Shire songs into the firelit hall. Their host seemed amused but not unwilling, and Bilbo stood up from her seat upon a lounge chair and launched into a jaunty tune about a lad and a lass, and the many mishaps which plagued their courtship, though all came to rights in the end. It seemed quite a complicated thing, hobbit courtship, and Fili hoped that he would not make nearly so many gaffes as the poor lad in the song had made. Perhaps Bilbo would be open to doing things the dwarven way? It was ever so much simpler. When the last note of that song faded away, she followed it with a song to celebrate the spring, and several more besides. She had a sweet voice, lower than Fili might have expected, if a bit breathy, and he could see smiles upon more than a few of the faces in the grand room. Some of them appeared more indulgent than entertained, but then, Fili supposed that was to be expected from a race of people who lived for so long as the elves. Shifting extended the lives of the dwarves far past the lives of Men, but they still did not live forever. He and Bilbo and all of their companions, save Tharkun, must seem like children to the aged minds of their hosts.

Long into the evening, Bilbo’s voice began to give out, and Lord Elrond called for some of his elves to guide his guests to their chambers.

There was a bit of a fuss when Dori discovered that Ori was expected to sleep with Bilbo in a separate room, but for once Ori was too tired to put up with his hovering. “ _Goodnight,_ brother,” she sighed in clear exasperation. “I will see you in the morning.”

“Now, Ori-“

“Really, Master Dori, what _do_ you think is going to happen to her?” Bilbo asked, her voice slightly hoarse. She took Ori’s arm, having to reach up slightly because of the difference in their heights. “Ori and I will do just fine on our own, won’t we, Ori? Goodnight, gentlemen.” With that, she led Ori into their room, refusing to so much as look back at the dwarves gathered in the hallway.

Kili stared after her, a contemplative expression on his face. “I like her,” he decided, before turning to follow the rest of the dwarves and clapping Fili on the shoulder.

“You’re just deciding this now?” Fili asked skeptically, as their guide opened the first door down from Bilbo and Ori’s and motioned for Dori and Nori to enter, which Dori did with a mulish expression, his gaze turned towards the first room.

Kili was the kind, open sort of soul who tended to like everyone he met, up until the point they gave him reason not to. It had caused Fili quite a bit of grief when they were growing up, as Kili had grown attached to many a peer and elder, only to be heartbroken when they showed him who they really were, and proved that Kili’s trust and affection had been misplaced. Fili wouldn’t say that Kili’s soft heart was a weakness. He loved his brother exactly as he was, and always would, but he wished the world was not so full of deceit and dashed hopes, because he feared the day that Kili’s many heartbreaks would turn him hard and cold, and prayed that it would never come.

“Oh no, I liked her well enough before, but now we know-“ he glanced at their escort warily, as though just remembering the elf’s presence, “her better, I like her even more.”

“Wonderful,” Fili said dryly, and Kili bumped up against him in retaliation for his less than enthusiastic response. “So, all your worries from before we left home,” he added, choosing his words carefully in deference to their audience, “are gone, just like that?”

Kili considered the question quietly for a moment. “Perhaps not entirely gone, no. But I was worried about some stuffy dwarrowdam, not Bilbo. And while she can be a bit fussy sometimes, she’s very kind, and she also knows how to put you in your place.” He sent Fili a look full of mischief. “Maybe she will even be an ally in my quest to make you put yourself before everyone else once in a while. Mahal knows I’ve had little enough success at it on my own.”

“I put myself first sometimes,” Fili objected. Sometimes he would step away from the rest of the Company for a smoke, and back in Ered Luin, if he had no duties that required his immediate attention, he would go down to the training floor to practice throwing his knives, or hole up in the forge to hone his craft.

“Not when it really counts,” Kili retorted. “You’re as bad as uncle, you know that?”

“Thank you, Kili,” Thorin murmured with a great deal of asperity.

Shooting their uncle an innocent look, Kili turned back to Fili and said, “You should be happy, brother! This is a good thing.”

Fili agreed easily enough, though not for the same reasons. He could take care of himself just fine, thank you. “Aye, it is, and I will be perfectly happy to celebrate it with you in whatever way you might wish – tomorrow, after I’ve slept.”

With a sly glance, Kili asked, “Whatever way?”

“Whatever way will not get us tossed out on our ears,” Fili amended, also sparing a glance towards their guide, who reached a door a little further down the hall from Bilbo and Ori than Fili would strictly prefer, and opened it, gesturing for Fili, Kili, and Thorin, who would be rooming together, to enter.

“If there is anything you require, my lords, you need only ask,” the elf offered before giving them a slight bow and departing.

The only thing Fili required after being up for a full night and a day and fighting two separate battles was a string of uninterrupted hours in a soft, warm bed, and that was exactly what Fili found, though it took some maneuvering to get onto the high mattress after divesting himself of most of his clothes. He wondered how Bilbo and Ori had fared with their own bed, and then had to shake the thought away, because notions of _Bilbo_ and _beds_ were entirely unconducive to anything resembling rest. He was no stranger to the naked female form – the realities of their gift made such a thing nigh on impossible – but until today, Bilbo’s body had largely been a mystery, and now that mystery had been thoroughly solved. She was entirely too lovely, his One, and thoughts of her had occupied him frequently today in the moments when nothing of importance held his attention. At last, he managed to push such images out of his head, and he drifted off into deep slumber, and did not stir until the sun was already high in the sky.

* * *

Their time in Rivendell was peaceful. One of the blessings of a people so long-lived as the elves was the lack of urgency in everything that they did. If something was going to happen, it would do so in its own time, and so long as no one was gravely injured, there was no point in haste.

Normally, Fili would view this attitude as a curse, his fingers itching for a hammer and tongs, or a blade, or even a block of wood and a knife, or a dispute he could settle, or some creature he could hunt. Idle days in Ered Luin were days wasted, but the guilt he would have felt at taking his leisure back in the Blue Mountains had no place here. In this place, he could simply be a guest, and so he spent hours in the library scouring maps, and still more strolling in the sunlight, or playing with a fiddle an elleth had been kind enough to allow him to borrow from the Hall of Fire.

Sometimes, Bilbo would join him, and when he looked back on this time later, he knew that he would not have traded the chance to get to know her away from the pressures of the quest for anything – not even all the gold in Erebor. He sparred with her when she grew restless and wiled the hours away chatting when she was at ease. Other times, he and Kili would steal a reluctant Ori away from her older brother, who seemed to have grown even more overprotective since the incidents with the trolls and the orcs, and they would see what sort of mischief they could get up to in such a sedate place. The chance to rebel a little seemed to do their quiet friend some good, once she came around to the idea, which made their efforts worth every long-suffering look they received from the older dwarves.

Then, on the night Elrond was able to translate the moon runes on the map Gandalf had presented to Thorin at Bag End, there was a meeting of the White Council, and their idyll came to an end.

“Gather your things and tell the others to do the same,” Thorin ordered. “We leave immediately. I do not like our chances if the White Wizard aims to prevent us.”

Fili nodded respectfully. “Yes, uncle.” He and Kili, who had been introducing Bilbo to more dwarven music, parted ways with the hobbit lass. Bilbo went to seek out Ori, and they went to return their borrowed fiddles to the Hall of Fire. Then they went to their room, packing away the few belongings left lying about. They passed Bofur, Bifur, and Bombur in the hall and shared the news. The brothers and cousin offered to stop by the kitchens and nick enough supplies for the next leg of their journey, and within the hour, their Company had gathered as quietly as they could manage at the gates.

“I hate this,” Bilbo sighed from where she stood between Fili and Ori. “We should not have to leave like thieves in the night, and after the elves have been such lovely hosts, too. What _will_ they think of us after this? And what business is it of Saruman’s if we wish to take back Erebor? Who is he that he should be able to decide what people do and do not do?”

“No one of especially great importance, Bilbo my dear,” Gandalf murmured dryly from several paces ahead. “He is only the head of my order, after all.”

“Ah. No importance at all, then,” Bilbo remarked.

Kili, who was on Fili’s other side, sniggered and then tried to pass it off as a coughing fit. Fili pounded his little brother on the back, purely to help with the illusion, of course, and bit back a chuckle or two of his own. Ori shook her head at all three of them, likely wondering what crime she had committed to deserve such friends.

“Do try to contain yourselves,” Thorin instructed, his low voice wry. “We are trying to maintain a certain degree of stealth, if you recall.”

“Yes, of course,” Bilbo replied, trying to appear contrite. The impish little grin on her rosebud mouth rather ruined the attempt. “Sorry, Thorin.”

“Hmm.”

They marched along through the night and long into the morning, only stopping when they reached a small creak where they ate lunch and refilled their waterskins. That night, they all collapsed into their bedrolls and slept like the dead, apart from the few unfortunate souls who were assigned to take watch, and in the morning, they rose with the dawn. The next few weeks passed in this fashion, until at last they reached the mountain pass.

The first few days in the mountains were cold, but fairly easy going. Then a storm hit, and things fell apart in rather spectacular fashion.

Water fell into his eyes in a relentless torrent, and the thunder was so loud in his ears Fili felt as though he would never be able to get rid of the ringing. Bilbo nearly toppled over the edge of the cliffside, and Dwalin had to reach out and snatch her back. Then a giant boulder came crashing towards them, and they all crouched low, clinging to the side of the mountain as the boulder hit and split apart, pelting them with debris.

As if that were not bad enough, the mountain they were on began to move of its own accord, separating Fili from Kili and Bilbo. He tried to grab his little brother and One before they could be torn away from him but was forced to watch as they were taken father and father away.

They were all brought back together again, only for Kili and Bilbo to be forced to scrabble at the slick rock beneath them as gravity threatened to drag them over the edge. Fili leapt toward his little brother, grabbing his grasping hand desperately, and he hauled him back to safety. Then he darted back toward where Bilbo clung desperately to the edge, her nails shifted into claws which she dug in to try and maintain her grip.

Thorin reached her first, cursing up a storm even worse than the one that raged all about them, and Bilbo, who had already brought her shift to the surface in an effort to stay alive, roared in his face when he directed his ire towards her.

It looked as though the two of them might give into the shift fully and have it out right there on the side of the mountain, but then Ori and Dwalin yanked the two of them away from each other, for once ignoring the awkwardness between them in order to work together to prevent two of their Company from tearing each other apart, and they all hurried into the cave not too far away.

Fili retrieved his One from Ori with a low murmur of gratitude, and then looked down at the hobbit lass shivering in his arms. “Are you alright?”

“ _I_ am fine. It’s your uncle who has a stick up his-“

“Right!” Kili broke in, wide-eyed but otherwise unharmed by this latest near-disaster. “Who wants dinner? Do you want dinner, Fee? I want dinner.”

“Dinner sounds like an excellent idea,” Fili agreed gratefully.

Bilbo huffed but agreed willingly enough. “I could eat. I could always eat.”

“Oh, we know,” Kili told her, sounding impressed. Bilbo’s appetite had become somewhat legendary among the Company. Though it was true that dwarves needed a high volume of food to compensate for all the energy they expended when they shifted, that was nothing when compared to the amount of food their burglar could pack away. In Rivendell, Bilbo had always been the first one to arrive at the table for meals, and the last one to leave, and unless she had been speaking, there was a fork or spoonful of something in her mouth the entire time.

“Dinner will have to be cold again tonight, I’m afraid,” Bombur announced sadly. “We’ve still no kindling for a fire.”

“Aw, cheer up, Bom,” Bofur cajoled, clapping his brother on his broad back. “We’ll be out of these mountains soon enough, and then we can cook all the dinners your heart desires.”

“Aye,” Bombur sighed, looking through his pack wistfully before pulling out a serving of elvish waybread and dried meat for everyone.

Fili did not blame Bombur for his low spirits. They had all ceased looking at the lembas with suspicion after their first meal of it not too far out from Rivendell, as it tasted far better than cram, but they were still heartily sick of waybread in any form.

Nevertheless, they munched away at their meager dinner and then bedded down for the night, Bilbo taking first watch as she was, in her words, “Still much too keyed up to sleep.”

It took Fili far too long to fall asleep that night, seeing Kili and Bilbo falling again and again behind his eyelids, and again in his dreams. The cry that called him out of his nightmares was almost a relief, but when he came awake and turned towards the source of the cry, he stared at Bilbo’s little blade in dismay as it bathed the Company in an earie blue light.

Immediately, he stumbled out of his bedroll and reached for his swords, turning to seek out the approaching goblins, and then they were upon the Company.

Fili fended off the blade of a charging goblin with one blade and clove its head from its shoulders with the other, twisting to face the next goblin before the body of the first hit the cave floor. It was as he buried his blades to the hilt in the chest of his third goblin that he heard a high, clear cry rise up above the din and turned to stare in horror as Bilbo and another goblin tumbled down into the depths and far beyond his reach.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas, to those of my darlings who celebrate it!
> 
> Sorry for the wait - this chapter just _did not_ want to be written, and even when I finally had it finished, I had to scrap several parts and rewrite them. Also, I was fairly busy with real life things for a bit, so fandom had to take a backseat.

The sons of Durin had not been made for times of peace. Theirs was a legacy of war and strife and agonizing loss. Fili's hands had taken up blades long before they ever held a quill and scroll, as his life had been threatened before he drew his first breath; such was the lot of the scion of a royal line - even one as diminished as his family's.

That training served him well now, as he held the goblins off instinctively, driving them back with his swords for as long as possible, until the sheer numbers of the enemy brought them too near. Using the body of a goblin he'd stabbed through the heart as a shield, Fili sheathed one sword and then the other, drawing two dirks. Then he kicked the body towards its oncoming brethren and used the resulting shock and confusion to slay two more goblins. And all the while, his heart screamed for its other half. He was grimly thankful for the way his body reacted to every threat without conscious direction, as he was far too consumed with the memory of seeing Bilbo fall and being helpless to stop it.

Eventually, though, his ability to fight through the overwhelming sense of loss no longer mattered, as the goblins continued to swarm upon the Company endlessly, wearing them down and forcing them to admit defeat.

As the rest of the Company was rounded up, stripped of their weapons, and led by jeering servants of the Enemy through a series of caves and over bridges that hardly deserved the name, so shoddily were they crafted, Fili took the chance to discover whether or not all was truly lost. He delved deep within himself, seeking the traces of the ties that should bind him to his One, however faint they might be since they had not yet bound their lives together. He had never had cause to search for their bond before, as he had known where she was almost constantly since finding out what she was to him. Even when she went off on her own while they were in Rivendell, he had not worried about her; his people may have no great love for the elves, but he knew that no harm would come to her at their hands.

When they reached the largest cavern yet, a goblin of especial malignance waited for his minions and their spoils upon a crudely crafted throne. Everything about this goblin was large and drooping, dragged down by his enormity, from his jowls to his warts to his disturbingly fleshy feet.

Fili ignored the self-proclaimed Goblin King’s posturing and the merry mental chase Oin, Balin, and Bofur led him on with their words, still seeking some sign that Bilbo yet lived. Finally, a faint flicker of awareness deep within his breast caused him to release a silent sigh of relief.

Somehow, somewhere, Bilbo had managed to survive the fall, and if Fili and the others made it out of this accursed town, he would do everything in his power to find her.

The threat of torture to either Kili or Ori, who looked quite young, for all that she was fifty years Fili’s senior, and so could easily be mistaken for the youngest among them, dragged Fili’s focus forcibly back to the majority of the Company’s plight. His fingers twitched with the need to grasp his blades and sheath them in the revolting mass sprawling before him, and he could feel his teeth and nails threatening to lengthen and grow into deadly points which he would dearly love to rake over the Goblin King’s bulbous eyes. If only they were not so surrounded, and he could shift fully and rend the disgusting creature limb from limb. No one threatened his little brother or his best friend and lived long enough to tell about it.

He saw Thorin step forward and heard him calling for the goblins to wait, and could feel only a swell of gratitude at his uncle’s actions, though strategically, it was a poor decision. The Company could not afford to lose their leader, and the dwarves back in the settlement could not afford to lose their king. However, Thorin, as they all knew, would never be able to sit idly by while one of his people was threatened, and he especially could not abide the thought of anything befalling his youngest heir. Fili knew that the instinct to protect Kili was so ingrained within his uncle, as it was in Fili and his mother also, that he could not toss it aside even for the sake of their quest.

“Well, what do we have here? Tell me, Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, what brings you to my halls?” Here, the Goblin King held up a meaty hand and said, “Wait. Don’t tell me. You seek to regain the mountain your grandfather so carelessly lost.” He eyed the group of dwarves before him in obvious contempt. “Though how you could possibly hope to retake the mountain with so few among you, when the pale orc has put a price upon your head, I don’t know.”

Thorin frowned up at the putrid pile of fat and sagging skin thunderously. “If you speak of Azog in hopes to frighten me, you would be better served by saving your breath. I slew the Defiler myself.”

The Goblin King’s eyebrows rose into what would have been his hair line, had he any hair of which to speak. “Is that what you think?” He called to one of the sniveling goblins crouching in wait. “Make it known to the pale orc that his search is at an end.” The thing bowed low, its nose practically scraping the wood beneath its feet, and then scurried off to do as the Goblin King bid. “Now,” The Goblin King said, clapping his hands together. “Let us see what other gifts the dwarves have brought us today, aside from the head of the king under the mountain.”

At his command, the goblin horde began to rifle through the weapons they had taken from the dwarves. Fili gritted his teeth at the sight of one goblin’s filthy fingers touching the swords he had forged with his own two hands and carried for nigh on a decade. The only time a goblin should touch one of his blades was when it died upon it. At least the goblins were as stupid as they were hideous; they had failed to search Fili for his other blades, aside from the twin dirks he had wielded when he and the others were forced to surrender, and so when the time came for the Company to fight their way out – if, indeed, that time ever came – Fili would be ready.

One of the goblins stumbled across the sword Thorin had taken to carrying ever since their battle with the trolls. It glowed as bright a blue as Bilbo’s little blade had, and the sight of the elvish sword incited the Goblin King, who had previously been disgustingly cheerful, to rush at the Company in a flurry of furious flab.

With an explosion that shook the walls of the cavern and dislodged several goblins from their perches, Gandalf returned and ordered Fili and the rest of the Company to take up arms – as if they ever needed any encouragement to fight goblin filth. Now that he knew Bilbo was alive, Fili was all too happy to clear his way to where many of their weapons had been stashed, slashing out at the goblins who tried to stop the Company’s progress with two of the knives he kept sheathed inside his coat. The others followed after, scooping up swords and hammers and axes and making the goblins dearly regret seizing them in the cave.

In a line, they hastened along a series of wooden walkways, many of them in a state of horrifying disrepair. Goblins continued to rush at the Company, not smart enough to learn from the mistakes of their brethren, and they were all cleared out of the way, either by sweeping them off the walkways in droves – Dwalin was particularly effective at this – or stabbing, hacking, or slashing at them as they appeared and then shoving them over into the abyss below. Fili caught a hint of rather blood-thirsty delight in his little brother’s eyes at the sight of Dwalin knocking the goblins down in groups, and he was entirely unsurprised when Kili grabbed a ladder and proceeded to follow Dwalin’s example until the ladder became necessary for the Company to cross over a large gap from one part of the walkway to the next.

At one point, the Goblin King himself tried to stop them, but Gandalf dispatched him with embarrassing ease. He had clearly grown slow and lazy, lording his great size over the rest of the goblins within the slipshod town beneath the mountains.

Still, the goblins continued to swarm, either not realizing, or not caring, that their leader had been slain and that many of their fellow goblins had met a similar fate. Fili’s legs and arms trembled from exertion, and his lungs cried out for more air than he could give them, but he and the rest of the Company pressed on, seeking the surface.

Finally, they reached an exit from the caves and broke out into a world lit brilliantly by the sun. They continued running full out even after escaping from the caves, unwilling to chance the possibility that some of the goblins might take it into their heads to brave the daylight after all. But eventually, they slowed, and Gandalf began to count the dwarves, stopping in dismay when he could not find their fourteenth member. “Where is Bilbo? Where is our hobbit lass?”

“A goblin attacked her, and they fell,” Fili told him, his voice wrecked at the reminder. “But she made it. I am sure of it.”

He caught some of the others eyeing him at this declaration, and he gave them a single, curt nod. If there had been any doubt among the Company about the existence of his bond with their burglar before, this declaration had certainly put it to rest.

Gandalf sighed, both grateful and aggrieved. “Then we shall have to go and rescue her.”

“You won’t, actually,” a soft, familiar voice piped up, and Fili whirled around, catching sight of a bruised, cut, and bedraggled, but otherwise unharmed, Bilbo Baggins. “She saved you lot the trouble and rescued herself.”

Fili had begun moving towards her the moment he realized she was there, and he scooped her up in his arms even as she finished speaking. “Bilbo,” he breathed, too exhausted and relieved to give his voice any real volume. “Mahal above _, never_ scare me like that again.”

She patted his back gingerly with her small hand, the sensation of her gentle reassurance barely enough to make it through his layers of clothing, weapons, and armor. “I’ll try not to, but you know, it isn’t as though I plan for these sorts of things.”

“Well, that sounds like a failing on your part,” he teased lightly.

She reached up with one hand and flicked him on the ear.

“Hey!” he laughed, clutching at the abused flesh.

“Serves you right, Fee,” Kili announced with an exaggeratedly virtuous look, pulling Bilbo away and giving her a hug of his own. “Stop hogging our hobbit lass.”

“Why have you come here, Miss Baggins? Why not leave and return to your homeland when you had the chance? Our road has been filled with far more danger than even I could have foreseen, and we would not have known if you fled until it was too late to recover you,” Thorin broke in.

She drew away from Kili and turned to face their uncle, standing as tall as she was able, her hands at her hips. “Yes, it has been dangerous. I have seen and been party to more violence in the last few months than I have in my entire life. But that is why I must go with you. It is not right that the entire world seems to be against you and yours reclaiming your home, and if my being here can help even a little, then nothing you, or anyone else for that matter, can say or do will turn me away.”

For a breathless moment, she and Thorin eyed each other, and it looked as though Thorin would say something in return. Then the Company tensed anew at the sound of warg howls carrying on the wind, and they turned with colorful curses to begin running once again.

Fili, unwilling to let Bilbo venture too far away with the memory of her fall still so fresh in his mind, caught up to her and took hold of her hand, and huffed a laugh when Bilbo wondered, “Why is it that I always seem to be running to or from something with you?”

“Why? Would you rather be running somewhere without me?”

“I’d rather not be running at all.”

At his other side, Kili put on a burst of speed and said, “Less flirting, more fleeing, if you don’t mind.”

He did mind, truth be told. Fili’s legs, which had already been burning from their previous flight, protested this latest round vehemently, and he knew that he and the others would be feeling the effects of this for days, even with their advanced healing, especially if they could not find the opportunity to shift.

Their flight afforded them little enough in the end. They were forced to scurry up into the trees and cling to the branches as the world all about them caught fire, flinging flaming pinecones at the Enemy.

From out of the haze of smoke and heat came forth an enormous, pale beast upon a white warg. Fili did not need to hear his uncle spit Azog’s name to know it was he, alive and still bent upon destroying what remained of Durin’s line. Here was one Fili had grown up hearing about in the stories of old warriors, cursing their losses at the gates of their once-great homeland. He was every bit as hideous and terrifying as the old tales claimed, lean and powerful where the Goblin King had been rotund and slothful, and tall as a tree, with a wicked weapon in place of the arm Thorin had hewn all those years ago.

Heat from the flames licked at his face and the trees creaked and swayed and threatened to lose their burdens, and Azog drew nearer still. He stopped only when he was close enough to taunt Thorin, and Fili cast a wary eye towards his uncle, whose face contorted in fury at the sound of the hateful Black Speech _. Don’t_ , Fili railed silently. _Don’t let him win_.

It was hopeless.

“Oh, _really_ , now,” Bilbo said, sounding at once furious and like a disappointed parent as Thorin leaped down to charge at Azog, and it was all Fili could do to remain standing upon the branch beneath his aching feet. He yearned to throw himself down after his uncle, but if Thorin should fall, Fili would be bound to lead the Company on, and he could not abandon them.

The fight was over almost as soon as it began, Azog’s sheer size and energy, as well as Thorin’s lack of a mount, making the outcome almost a foregone conclusion, and Fili screamed for Thorin as he watched his uncle fall.

Then a tiny blur plunged down into the fray, darting between Thorin and the Enemy, and Fili stared after Bilbo, horrified. What in Mahal’s name did she think she was doing? And after sounding so exasperated by Thorin’s own recklessness, at that.

After that, the rest of the Company began to leap and scamper down to the ground, and Fili finally allowed himself to charge into the fray. What good would it do, after all, to survive only to lead a group of the dead?

He strove to reach Thorin and Bilbo, with Kili fighting at his side, fear and anger driving them on though it seemed certain that this battle would end only in their deaths. At least if they did die, they would not do so alone.

A shrill cry pierced the gloom, and Fili cleaved the head of an orc from its shoulders and chanced a swift glance overhead, catching sight of great winged beasts headed their way. There was little time to consider them, as another orc took the other’s place, and then another, and another. So intent was Fili upon reaching Thorin and his One that he was utterly unprepared for the enormous talons which snatched him up and bore him away, before dropping him onto the back of another of what he finally identified as eagles.

He dug his fingers into the feathers at the eagle’s back and felt more than saw Kili dropped down beside him. Sending a silent prayer of thanks to their Maker, Fili leaned against his little brother’s side to express his relief at his presence but did not say anything, already searching for a glimpse of Thorin and Bilbo.

Finally, his eyes landed upon his uncle, hanging limp from the talons of another eagle, and he cried Thorin’s name, desperate for some sign that he yet lived. No matter how long he stared, Thorin remained unresponsive, and Fili at last had to admit it was futile. Thorin would wake or he would not, but Fili would do him no good simply gazing at him and willing him to open his eyes. Instead, he sought out Bilbo, and found her clinging to her own eagle, a mix of terror, exhaustion, and elation in her small face.

The eagles flew until the sun had nearly risen and then deposited their charges with little fanfare upon the edge of a cliff. Fili turned to his brother once Kili’s boots met the earth and began to look him over. For the first time in the aftermath of a fight, Kili shrugged him off and sent him in Thorin and Bilbo’s direction, saying, “Don’t worry about me, Fee. You and I both know where you need to be.”

He strode over to where Thorin lay and checked his neck for a pulse, letting out a sigh of relief when it came to him, thrumming strongly beneath his seeking fingers.

Weak with gratitude, Fili stumbled part of the way towards Bilbo before he regained his bearings. When he reached her, she was kneeling down upon the ground, one palm placed upon the dirt before her, with her eyes closed. He could hear her whispering in a strange, lilting tongue he had never heard before, and he knelt beside her to wait until she was finished.

When she fell silent, she opened her eyes and looked up into his, a newfound peace relaxing her features.

“What were you doing?” he asked softly.

“I was thanking Yavanna for seeing us here safely,” she told him, sounding serene. “I did the same in Rivendell, when the elves took Ori and I away for our bath.” She cocked her head. “Do you not also thank your creator?”

“We do. If we were at home, we would shift and go for a run to honor his greatest gift to us and express our gratitude for his guidance and protection.”

They both turned at the sound of a gasp, and Fili felt all the tension go out of his shoulders at the sight of his uncle’s eyes open and casting about as he heaved himself up from the ground. “Where is she? Where is Bilbo?”

Bilbo jumped at the sound of her name upon Thorin’s lips before calling, “Here,” and stepping forward to meet him.

Fili frowned as Thorin began to rehash a slew of unwarranted memories from their quest so far, and then his eyebrows shot up his forehead when Thorin admitted to being wrong about Bilbo the entire time. A light breeze could have knocked Fili on his rump when Thorin went so far as to apologize for doubting Bilbo, and judging from what little he could see of her face, she was similarly stunned. She recovered quickly and absolved Thorin of any guilt, accepting the hug that Thorin offered, which Fili appreciated while privately considering that his One was too inclined to forgive when she would be well within her rights to withhold her absolution, at least for a short time.

Shaking his head, Fili took a deep breath and turned away to give the two of them a chance to speak without all eyes on them. In spite of how it might feel, neither Thorin nor Bilbo would come to harm if he took his eyes off of them for a few moments. In his efforts to distract himself, Fili found himself facing a sight that he recognized in his _bones_ , though he had never laid eyes upon it before. He had followed his uncle on this quest out of loyalty to his kin and duty to his people, not out of any true desire to reclaim what the dragon had stolen. Nothing could have prepared him for the intense longing which rocked him upon first sight of the homeland of his ancestors.

“Uncle,” he said hoarsely, before clearing his throat and trying again. “Thorin, _look!”_

His uncle came to stand at his side. “Erebor,” he breathed.

Fili tore his gaze away from the Lonely Mountain, which required more effort than he ever would have anticipated, and glanced at Thorin, who was open and raw in a way that Fili had rarely seen his uncle. He could not imagine what Thorin must be feeling in this moment, when he laid eyes upon his home after more than a century of exile.

A slender hand slid into his, and Fili looked to his other side to see Bilbo taking in Erebor, full of wonder and hope. “I didn’t know,” she said, her voice low.

“Didn’t know what?”

“That it would feel like home.”

* * *

Getting down from the Carrock, as Fili remembered it was called from the many maps he had poured over in Rivendell’s library, took far more out of the Company than they could afford to lose. To say that the day had been long would have been the worst sort of understatement, and many of them were injured in addition to the soreness and exhaustion that came from the harrowing journey through the Misty Mountains.

When they finally reached the base, they made only half-hearted efforts to seek out shelter before they decided to make camp out in the open. If Azog and his band of sycophants managed to catch up to them after the eagles had flown them so far away, then that would be a feat so impressive that the orcs would deserve to catch the Company unawares and receive an easy victory.

“Gandalf,” Thorin said, “if you would be so kind as to stand watch while the rest of us shift.”

For once, Tharkun offered no arguments or opinions. Instead, he found a log to sit upon and kept a wary eye out for any who might stumble upon the Company while they shifted into their other forms.

It was a relief to allow the shift to overtake him after shedding his clothing, weapons, and armor, Mahal’s greatest gift soothing the aches and pains of the past few days away. He noted idly that Bilbo had dispensed with any ideas of modesty, her body growing and changing into the sleek, powerful golden form of a lioness right alongside him.

He padded closer and nuzzled her head with his own, and she turned curious eyes towards his own before blinking and nuzzling him back.

Eventually, Thorin melted back into his two-legged form, and Fili and the rest of the Company followed suit, all looking noticeably calmer and yet more energetic.

“Kili, Dwalin, after you’ve dressed and armed yourselves, see if you can find some meat for Bombur and Bilbo to cook tonight,” Thorin said as he began to pull on his smallclothes.

“Aye,” Dwalin agreed as he proceeded to do the same.

After Kili and Dwalin peeled off from the rest of the group to go hunting, Bilbo offered up what was left of the food in her pack to tide the rest of them over until Kili and Dwalin returned, everyone’s appetites elevated after the shift. There hadn’t been much food in her pack to start with, as hers was the lightest pack in the Company, and so they divvied up her meager stores into much smaller portions than any of them would like.

They passed the few waterskins that managed to survive the trip to Goblin Town, which did little to quench anyone’s thirst, and started a fire, talking amongst themselves in low tones.

As Bilbo sat beside him, studiously avoiding looking at Bofur, Bifur, and Bomber, who were in the process of shifting back, instead watching Gloin feed more fuel into the flames and munching on the last of the candied pecans that she confessed she had nicked from the kitchens in Rivendell the night before they snuck out, and had been hoarding for the past few weeks, she said, “You know, I still haven’t figured out what Gloin’s form is. I’d say he was a large weasel, but that still wouldn’t be quite right.”

The others nearby hastened to hush Bilbo, casting wary looks in Gloin’s direction, and she stared at all of them with wide, bewildered blue eyes. “What’s the matter?”

Fili leaned in, speaking lowly. “We don’t talk about it. The truth is, none of us know what Gloin and Hamla’s forms are. Hamla seems to be fine with it, but it makes Gloin a bit – sensitive.”

Bilbo blinked. ”Oh. So, Hamla is also – whatever Gloin may be?”

Fili shot her a perplexed frown. “Well, yes, of course they share the same form. They’re Ones.”

His own One looked utterly floored, and Fili began to grow slightly concerned, lowering the second apple he had been working on into his lap, the other already eaten down to the core and tossed into the fire. Had none of them thought to tell her that? Had he honestly gone the last month under the assumption that Bilbo understood what she was to him, when she had not the faintest idea? How could she not know? Did she not feel the same pull towards him that he felt towards her? Yet even aside from that, he had felt certain Ori would have said something to Bilbo by now. They had grown close enough that he simply assumed she would have told Bilbo all about the way of things between she and Dwalin, and that naturally that would have included the nature of Ones.

It was as Fili pondered this rather monumental oversight that Gandalf, who passed them by with pipe in hand, clearly preparing to settle down somewhere for a nice smoke, informed them with a great deal of amusement, “You will all be happy to know that I do know the name of Master Gloin’s rather magnificent form. He and his wife are ratels, more colloquially known as honey badgers.”

“What’s that?” Gloin asked, amazed.

“You are a ratel, Master Gloin. An incredibly brave and resilient creature found south of Harad. I would have told you sooner, had I known you were not aware.”

“D’ye hear that, brother?” Gloin crowed. “My form is a ratel!”

Gloin received hearty slaps on the back and congratulations for this discovery, and Fili stayed beside Bilbo as she sat and watched the joyful commotion with a bemused yet happy air. She finished off the last of her pilfered pecans and then glanced down at the apple Fili had stopped eating when Bilbo revealed that no one had yet explained to her the nature of Ones.

“Are you going to eat that?” she asked, making a poor attempt to mask how hopeful she was.

Fili was starving. He had endured the exact same day and night as everyone else in the Company, and his body _needed_ the fuel, especially after shifting earlier to help his body recover from the strain he had put it through. But Kili and Dwalin should arrive with something soon enough, and he could hear Bilbo’s stomach growling, that handful of candied pecans not nearly enough for her exceptional metabolism. He passed the partially eaten apple over and watched as she demolished the rest of it, making a show of glancing between the apple and his hand, wiggling his fingers as though to assure himself that they were still attached. She kicked at him lightly with her great hairy foot, and it smarted more than Fili was willing to admit.

When she was done gnawing the last bits of flesh from his apple, she tossed the core into the fire and glanced around at the rest of the Company with that hopeful light back in her eyes.

Ori, Mahal bless her, escaped from Dori’s fussing and sat on Bilbo’s other side, offering her two dried figs. “I’d let you have more, but I’ve already eaten the rest of what you gave me,” Ori said sheepishly.

This gave Bilbo pause. “Well – well, we did agree that the portions I gave out were fair.” She glanced at Fili with a guilty look in her eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want to eat those yourself, Ori?”

With a soft huff, Ori pressed the dried figs into Bilbo’s hands. “Go on, Bilbo. We both know you need them more than I do.”

Indeed, Bilbo’s stomach was _still_ rumbling, and Fili felt his own answer in sympathy. She shot him another guilty look but was persuaded by yet another, particularly loud grumble from her belly, which was much smaller than it had been by the time they had left Rivendell and the generosity of Elrond’s table. As she stuffed one of the dried figs into her mouth in a way that suggested she still suspected that she shouldn’t, Fili looked at his friend over Bilbo’s head.

“Ori,” he said, trying to sound casual, “did you know that neither of us ever explained Ones to Bilbo?”

Looking flustered, Ori told him, “Well, of course I know that _I_ never said anything about it, but I thought surely _you_ would tell her…” her voice trailed off. “No? Oh, dear.”

Already done with the last of the figs – of course – Bilbo asked, “Why would you expect Fili to be the one? Because we’re friends, or because his form is also a lion?”

“Um,” Ori floundered, looking as though she would rather be anywhere else than sitting under the pointed gaze of a tiny hobbit lass. “Well, yes. It’s so rare for a dwarf to be a lion, you see-“

“How rare?”

“Until I met you,” Fili told her, “I had never met another lion.” His form was seen as a blessing by his people, for its power and its rarity to belong to Thorin’s eldest heir, but Fili had privately mourned the possibility of having a One, since there had been no word of a lioness amongst any of the other dwarven realms. It was one of the reasons he had been so caught off guard by Kili's concern over the possibility that Fili would encounter his One on this quest; he honestly had resigned himself to never being so blessed. 

Bilbo leaned back, supporting her weight on her hands and staring up into the sky, which was slowly growing dark enough for the stars to come out. “I see.” She was silent for a good while after this, and Fili and Ori followed her lead. “I suppose, then,” she said at last, an unreadable look in her eyes, “that you believe this means that you and I are each other’s Ones?”

“I don’t have to believe it,” Fili replied. “I know it.” He watched the shadows cast upon her delicate face by the dancing flames and told her, “There is a bond between those Mahal crafted for each other. It’s faint until they… cement it, but when I saw you fall in the caves, I searched for you. It took a bit of effort, but I finally found you.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. I’m not one of Mahal’s children. I’m a hobbit.”

“Not entirely,” Ori pointed out reasonably. Then she paused, growing dismayed. “What if there are other Tooks who have Khazad Ones, and they’ve never met because none of our people know that the gift exists in the Took line, and none of the Tooks know where the gift comes from?” With a sigh, she said, “Sometimes I really hate how secretive our people are.”

Bilbo squirmed and then rose to her feet. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I’d like to have a bit of a smoke.”

Fili felt his heart sink. Did she not want it to be true? He knew she felt something toward him at least, as she frequently chose his company over that of everyone else in the Company, save Ori, and she often leaned against his side or rested her head against his shoulder. She was not the sort of lass who would do such things if she was indifferent towards him. She as too honest and genuine for that. Yet for all that, he was at a loss to explain her obvious disquiet.

“What, and you can’t do it here?” Ori asked, surprised.

“Well, I need a light, don’t I?” Bilbo asked reasonably, already beginning to step closer to the fire.

“I – yes, of course. Never mind,” Ori said. “Ignore me.”

Bilbo stopped and turned back for a moment, placing a comforting hand on Ori’s shoulder. “Ignore you, dear? Why ever would I do a ridiculous thing like that?”

Upon seeing the thankful upturn of Ori’s lips, Bilbo squeezed her shoulder and then resumed her short journey.

Ori tilted her head toward Fili and told him, “I’ll talk to her.”

“Would you?” Fili asked, feeling a swell of gratitude for his best friend. Normally Fili felt as though he could talk to Bilbo about anything, but his heart was too invested in this matter for him to feel confident in his ability to discuss it with anything approaching his usual rationality.

She bumped against his shoulder affectionately, her eyes on Kili and Dwalin, who were finally close enough to their makeshift camp for them to see clearly, what looked like several slain rabbits carried between the pair of them. “Of course, I will. Anything for you, Fili. You know that.”

“Aye,” he said honestly. “I do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The forms so far:  
> Thorin - wolverine  
> Dis - wolf  
> Fili and Bilbo - lion and lioness  
> Kili - otter  
> Bofur - jackal  
> Bombur - honey bear  
> Bifur - sheepdog  
> Ori and Dwalin - grizzly bears  
> Balin - bobcat  
> Nori - fox  
> Dori - badger  
> Oin - mink  
> Gloin - ratel


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ho, wow, it's back! (I can't believe it either.)
> 
> Happy Fili Friday!
> 
> This chapter is super short compared to the others, but I'm hoping to have something more for this soonish to make up for A) The long wait, and B) The short update.

Fili watched Ori sidle up to Bilbo where she stood a little ways away from the fire, puffing away at her pipe. He had no way of knowing what Bilbo’s face looked like in that moment, as she had her back towards him, but he could see the immaculate smoke rings she blew every once in a while and smell the sweet scent of her people’s pipe weed.

For a moment after Ori joined her, Bilbo glanced at her and Fili caught the barest hint of the side of her face. What little he could see of her face was unreadable, and he gave up trying to understand whatever was going on with her. She would explain it to him at some point or she wouldn’t, and staring at her accomplished nothing.

Instead he went to join Kili where he stood with Dwalin, delivering game to Bombur. Bombur looked pleased by their offerings, and Fili brushed up against Kili the way he would have in his other form, his shoulder bumping against his little brother’s side. Kili grinned and shoved back against him lightly.

“Nicely done, little brother,” he said, ignoring Dwalin's efforts entirely. Fili remembered looking up to Dwalin as a pebble. Such a strong, fierce warrior he was, and he had seemed so kind beneath that gruff exterior... or at least, he _had_ , until he began to avoid Ori once she reached her majority and started sending Dwalin hopeful, longing looks. Any admiration Fili harbored for Dwalin cleared up fairly swiftly after that.

“Thanks,” Kili said comfortably. Then he looked at Fili more closely. “Are you alright?” he asked, his eyebrows drawing together in a clear sign of concern.

Fili waved his question away. “As much so as any of the Company after the last few days.”

Kili gave him a look, clearly unconvinced, but he also knew better than to push. Fili had always been more inclined to work things through on his own. Perhaps it was simply another side-effect of Fili being the elder brother and Kili the younger. Either way, Kili would never press Fili for answers he did not feel inclined to offer.

“If you two are just going to stand there talking, you may as well help me skin and dress these, since Miss Bilbo seems otherwise occupied,” Bombur cut in amiably, holding aloft one of the rabbits.

Fili grimaced but offered no objections, retrieving a knife that would suit and accepting the rabbit Bombur proffered.

If nothing else, it would be difficult to worry about Bilbo with his hands covered in rabbit gore.

* * *

Not long after the Company demolished the roasted meat, Bilbo rose from where she had been sitting with Ori and came over to join Fili where he sat sharpening one of his blades, her large, hairy feet making no nose upon the soft grass.

“May I sit with you?” she asked softly.

He nodded to his right side. “Please do.”

She flashed him a wan smile and then folded gracefully to the ground. Placing her hand on his shoulder, keeping the touch light enough to avoid disrupting his work, she said, “I owe you an apology. You told me something important – something wonderful – and instead of staying and finding out more about what that means for you – for us, I ran away. That must have hurt you, and I am sorry. I can only imagine what you must be thinking right now.”

Fili could not respond for a few moments after, the hurt from watching her flee from a conversation which by all rights should have brought them closer together still too sharp, but eventually he asked, “Why did you run away? Do you not…?” He could not find it within himself to voice the words.

Her eyes widened and she held up her hands. “Oh, no! No, never that, Fili! Please don’t ever think that I don’t care about you or that I don’t,” her cheeks pinked fetchingly as she stumbled over the next part, “want you. I’m sorry if I made you doubt that. Truly, I am. It’s just that when you were explaining the concept of ‘Ones’ and how they always have the same form, I couldn’t help but think of someone else.”

Fili’s heart fell. Hadn’t she said that there were no other lions in the Shire? He was certain that she had. Who, then, could have her affections?

Bilbo’s widened again and then she shut them, shaking her head at herself slowly. “I’m sorry, again. I am making a proper mess of this whole thing, aren’t I? And to think, I’m supposed to be the more mature one out of the two of us.” She took a deep breath and then opened her eyes again. “When you told me about Ones, I couldn’t help but think about what that might mean for my mother.”

“Your mother?” he asked, as relieved as he was thrown. He was desperately glad to know that it was not their unfulfilled bond which bothered her, but he could not fathom the direction of her thoughts. He wondered if she would always bring so much joy and confusion into his life, and had a strong suspicion that the answer to that question was 'yes'.

“Yes. She loved my father more than air, more than _life itself,_ and the thought that he might not have been meant for her because of some oddity in our family tree… You have to understand, Fili, that remembering how happy my mother and father were together is one of the only things that made losing them so when I was so young a little more bearable. Those two loved each other enough to fill two lifetimes. _Ten!_ And yet, somewhere out there, there might be a dwarf who Aulë crafted to be with her. I can’t quite manage to wrap my head around it.”

Fili stored his whetstone and sheathed his blade, taking Bilbo’s hand in his own. He pressed a kiss to the back of it, and she made a soft contented sound and leaned against his side. He felt his heart swell within his chest, and warmth flooded his veins.

If they lived a thousand years, he would never tire of the simple pleasure of having her close to him.

“Not everyone has a One, you know.”

Bilbo nodded consideringly. “Ori did tell me that. But what if that’s not true? What if every dwarf and dam does have a One, but some of them are living out their lives in the Shire, completely unaware that there’s someone aching for them?”

With a gentle laugh, Fili told her, “There are far more dwarves in the world than you seem to think, Bilbo, and from what I’ve seen of it, the Shire isn’t that big. If the only hobbits who have the gift come from your mother’s line, then there is no way that they could account for the number of dwarves who never find their Ones.”

“Ah. Yes, I suppose that’s true.” Bilbo sounded slightly embarrassed to have overlooked such a glaring discrepancy, but Fili didn’t think much of it. Most days, Bilbo was one of the sharpest members, if not _the_ sharpest, of the Company, but none of them were at their best right now. “Still. At least some of my Took relatives must have Ones, and yet they have no way of knowing to look for them, and your people have no way of knowing that there are shifters in the Shire.” She shook her head slowly. “What a fine mess this is.”

“Mmm.” Perhaps Fili should be more bothered by the prospect, but there was little enough that either of them could do to change things, short of destroying the secrecy which had been part of their race since Durin walked the world alone. He glanced down at where her head had fallen to rest upon his shoulder to try and express this, only to find that Bilbo had managed to fall asleep.

Heart swelling again, he glanced over towards Kili, who was sitting on the other side of the fire, listening to Bofur spin a yarn that had about a fifty-fifty chance of being true. That sibling sense that the two of them had shared from the first time Fili took his little brother’s tiny body into his arms caused Kili to turn look away from Bofur and meet Fili’s gaze, his dark eyebrows lifted inquiringly.

Fili flicked his eyes toward his slumbering companion and then looked back at Kili pleadingly. Kili’s brow furrowed for a moment and then he looked over towards Bilbo’s pack and he appeared to heave a long-suffering sigh before giving Fili a slow, full smile, though his eyes, much like everyone else’s within the Company at present, drooped with exhaustion. He hauled himself up off of the ground and went to Bilbo’s pack, rooting around for her bedroll and blanket. Once he found them, he pulled them out and brought them close enough to the fire for added warmth, but far enough away that Bilbo would not be at risk of getting singed, and laid them out.

Carefully, Fili shifted and gathered Bilbo into his arms before standing up and carrying her over to her bedroll. He laid her down and pulled the blanket over her, and through the entire process, Bilbo’s face remained serene and her breathing even. He chanced a whisper of a kiss upon her forehead and then withdrew.

If he glanced slightly enviously at her bedroll and thought of his own, (which was likely being fought over by avaricious goblins at that very moment, or possibly already ripped to shreds because no one could agree on which goblins deserved any of their spoils, especially now that the odious Goblin King had been gutted) with longing, that was no one’s business but Fili’s.

Since he would not have the pleasure of even some semblance of a bed this night, Fili strode over to his uncle and volunteered for first watch. He was weary down to his bones, but the thought of trying to fall asleep with nothing between his body and the ground made him ache even now. He would not mind if he could sleep in his other form, but they were far too exposed here. They needed to be prepared to move in an instant, and Fili could not do that if he had to shift back and retrieve his belongings and don his clothes. He was fast but not _that fast_.

“Thank you, Fili. Bofur shall take second watch and Nori shall take third.” He glanced toward Bofur and Nori to ensure that his words had been heard and would subsequently be obeyed. When the two of them nodded, Thorin bade Fili goodnight and then clasped the back of Fili’s neck gently, bringing their foreheads together. “I am glad that you and your brother are unharmed.”

Fili huffed softly. “Because you know Amad would kill you if we weren’t?”

“That may have something to do with it,” Thorin replied dryly. “Then again, I do believe it is because ensuring our people’s future is my life, but you and your brother are my heart.” With that, he pulled away and went to lay down not far from Bilbo, leaving Fili to stare after him dumbly.

Perhaps the fight with Azog had affected Thorin even more than Fili had realized.


End file.
